Primary Palliative Care Research Group

Establishing a Care Home Centre of excellence, innovation, training and research

To scope the feasibility of establishing a Care Home Centre of excellence, innovation, training and research (CHC)

Care homes are the largest provider for the 24-hour care of frail older people in the UK. There are currently 18,000 care homes supporting 400,000 older people - three times the number of NHS beds. People over the age of 80yrs old now represent the fastest growing group within the UK population. However, care homes have suffered from an over-exaggerated bad press often being seen as ‘places of last resort’.

The project will collate the international literature on the development of teaching nursing homes in the USA, Canada and Australia, and visit specific sites in Norway and The Netherlands. This knowledge will be shared with clinicians and academic partners across Lothian while undertaking a feasibility study to establish a CHC in Edinburgh.

A CHC would not only be homely and a place of excellence for frail older people requiring 24-hour nursing care, but also challenge the perceptions of the care of frail older people and encourage a new generation of professional carers through training and research alongside empowering staff in local care homes.

Funder

Burdett Trust for Nursing

Research team

Jo Hockley, Scott Murray