Project Title

Development of a patient and family-initiated escalation of care scheme to detect and refer patient deterioration in hospital 

Research Focus

Involvement of patients, relatives and healthcare professionals in the development and implementation of a resource to improve recognition and management of adult, acute deterioration in hospitals across Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland  

Funder & Dates

HSE, PhD Scholars Programme in Health March 2017 

HSC R&D Opportunity-Led Programme December 2018 

Principal Investigator or Primary Supervisor (if PhD project) 

Dr Jennifer McGaughey 

Co-Investigators or additional supervisors

Dr Jennifer McGaughey 

Professor Bronagh Blackwood 

Professor Donna Fitzsimmons 

Research Fellow(s) or PhD Student

Aidin McKinney  

Name & Institution of Collaborators 

Name of External Partner Organisations

Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, Northern Ireland 

University Hospital Galway, Ireland   

Description of Project:

Aim; Methods; Expected Outcomes

Aim: To co-design a patient and family-initiated intervention to improve the detection and escalation of patient deterioration on acute adult hospital wards in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.  

Design: The design is a collective case study approach in an acute hospital in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland using an adapted co-design approach and Medical Research Council framework guidelines.  

Methods: Data will be collected from key stakeholders (patients, relatives, and healthcare professionals) using individual and focus group interviews and a review of patients’ records. This will inform the development of a co-designed intervention and implementation strategy. The developed prototype will be further refined and optimized following a feedback session with stakeholders from each hospital site. This study was funded in February 2018 and Research Ethics Committee approval was granted in March 2019.  

Discussion: This study will contribute to the growing knowledge base in relation to the interventions that improve the escalation of patient deterioration. It will also contribute to the intelligence, evidence and understanding of the role of patient and family participation in the detection and referral of clinical deterioration in acute adult hospital settings.  

Links/URLs to external pages

Patient and family involvement in escalating concerns about clinical deterioration in acute adult wards: A qualitative systematic review (2020) Nursing in Critical Care, https://doi.org/10.1111/nicc.12582 

Co-design of a patient and family-initiated escalation of care intervention to detect and refer patient deterioration: research protocol (2020) Journal of Advanced Nursing, https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.14365 

Patient and family-initiated escalation of care: A qualitative systematic review protocol (2019) Systematic Reviews, https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-019-1010-z