“Let’s Talk Research” – Improving Older Adults’ Understanding of Opportunities for Research Involvement

Introduction

Older adults have historically been excluded from research, in part due to preconceived notions from researchers, clinicians and patients themselves about research being for younger patients or those with certain medical conditions. These assumptions persist despite “Healthy Ageing” being a priority theme for the National Institute for Health and Care Research and the extensive body of evidence that involvement in research benefits clinical care for older adults. This quality improvement project (QIP) aimed to improve older adults’ understanding of opportunities for research involvement.

Methods

The standard for this QIP is the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence Guidance NG22 (Older People with Social Care Needs and Multiple Long-Term Conditions) recommendation for research: “… what is the lived experience of older people with social care needs and multiple long-term conditions”

The QIP was conducted in random week-long windows from March to June 2024 on a Care of the Elderly ward at Sunderland Royal Hospital. All discharged patients were included bar patients at the end of life. The “Plan, Do, Study, Act” methodology was used for this audit. Clinical documentation was scrutinised for evidence of discussion of research as evidence of success of an intervention. Interventions included leaflets, education of the junior medical team and discussion with the multidisciplinary team (MDT).

Results

No included patients had evidence of research discussion in clinical notes at baseline, providing leaflets improved this to 9%, but this was not maintained in the further interventions (education of the MDT and junior medical team).

Conclusions

This QIP failed to show significant objective success in improving older adults’ understanding of research opportunities, limited by documentation quality, rotational staff, and lack of staff confidence. Subjective benefit was felt and discussed, with scope for repeating this QIP with lessons learnt from this attempt.