Project Title

Supporting decision making on goals of care for community-dwelling patients living with a progressive life-limiting illness

Research Focus

This research focuses on the development and evaluation of an online advance care planning resource for community nurses, patients with a progressive illness, and families

Funder & Dates

Marie Curie

September 2022 - February 2024

Principal Investigator or Primary Supervisor

Professor Kevin Brazil, Queen’s University Belfast

Co-Investigators or additional supervisors

Professor Alice Coffey, University of Limerick

Professor Julie Green, Keele University

Professor Karen Harrison Dening, Dementia UK

Professor Nancy Preston, Lancaster University

Dr Julie Doherty, Queen’s University Belfast

Dr Owen Doody, University of Limerick

Dr Anne Finucane, University of Edinburgh

Dr Gary Mitchell, Queen’s University Belfast

Research Fellow(s) or PhD Student

Research Fellow: Dr Julie Doherty

Research Assistant: Ms Olivia Jamison

Name of External Partner Organisations

Marie Curie

Dementia UK

Description of Project:

Aim; Methods; Expected Outcomes

The aim of this project is to support communication and shared decision making on goals of care for community dwelling patients and families. To achieve this, we will develop an online advance care planning resource for patients, family carers and community nurses in the UK.

The resource will be co-designed. We will organise four workshops with community nurses, patients with a progressive illness and family carers to seek recommendations about content and design. We will also have individual discussions with up to 12 people who take part in the workshops to further explore experiences of advance care planning and decision support needs.

The online resource will then be developed and evaluated with up to 60 community nurses and 60 patients/family carers drawn from across the UK.

It is expected the resource will: 1) Enhance knowledge on advance care planning; 2) Improve communication and shared decision making on goals of care; 3) Promote the delivery of advance care planning in community nursing.