Research project - Serious Illness Care Programme North East (SICP NE)
In North America, the Serious Illness Care Programme was devised to improve communication between clinicians and adult patients with a serious illness to ensure more ‘person-centred’ care.
The programme included training in the implementation of a Serious Illness Conversation Guide and prompts to help clinicians have important conversations with patients who are nearing end of life.
NHS England provided funding to adapt the programme for use in the UK. Two research studies were undertaken. One to adapt the Serious Illness Conversation Guide prior to implementation and another to assess the feasibility of implementation following adaptation of the UK Programme.
This SICP NE project represented further, ongoing research and evaluation of the use of the Serious Illness Care Programme UK at sites across Newcastle, Northumbria and Gateshead NHS Foundation Trusts.
The methods evaluated the use and experience of the Serious Illness Care Programme UK, as well as the impact of the conversation on quality of life and quality of communication.
Dr Katie Few, Consultant in Palliative Medicine, Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust Project and Dr Felicity Dewhurst, Consultant in Palliative Care at St Oswald’s Hospice.
2022
This project looked to research and evaluate the use of the Serious Illness Care Programme UK, at multiple sites across the North East of England.
The application specifically referred to implementation within Newcastle, Northumbria and Gateshead NHS Foundation Trusts.
The research and evaluation assessed use of the Serious Illness Care Programme on two levels.
Organisational Level: Implementation and service improvement metrics to track use of the Programme within the organisation, including ‘reach’ metrics and ‘service flow’ data.
Individual Level (patients and clinicians): use and experience of the Programme in practice, including acceptability using questionnaires and qualitative interviews and focus groups.