Research
2011
New PhD students
Diane Wilsden Sadness in care homes
Amos Doughan The experiences of older people from ethnic minorities in care homes
2010 Projects include:
Attitudes to healthcare professionals working with older people by their peers
- This project is led by Dr Angela Kydd and involves researchers from five other countries: Japan, Germany, USA, Sweden, Slovenia
- Preliminary results will be available in the autiumn.
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The Getting Together Project
This project was led by Dr Pauline Banks and involved recruiting older volunteers to visit isolated older people. For more details please email pauline.banks@uws.ac.uk
phd students
Margaret Brown: Quality of life for people with severe dementia
Barbara Sharp: The effects of anxiety on cognition
Anne Fleming : Design of care Homes
MRes Students
Lorna Reid : Palliative care in care homes
RECENT PhD Graduates
Laura MacMillan: Quality of life following hip fracture
Older Projects
Centres of Excellence Project Rationale
The notion of 'centres of excellence' was developed by members of the Gerontology Interest Group around June 2001 in recognition of the gap that often exists between research knowledge and clinical practice.
The need for evidence-based practice is much mooted, particularly in the health care of older people, yet little information is available about the specific pathways to achieving this. The 'Centres of Excellence' Programme, believed to be the first of its kind in Scotland, was designed as a means of facilitating the process of incorporating research findings and knowledge into clinical skills and practice leading to improved patient care.
Eight individual clinical sites, both hospital and community based, rural and urban across Glasgow, Renfrewshire and Argyll elected to take part in this innovative project. Each site selected a specific project, namely a change in practice to work towards, based on their own particular needs, which would ultimately result in improving their care delivery for older people.
A multi-disciplinary steering group was set up consisting of nominated representative from each clinical site, academics, educationalists, senior clinicians, and representatives from SHAS, HEBS, NMC, and NMPDU. It was intended that this afford an opportunity to share ideas, provide support and problem solving during the process of facilitating and sustaining the desired change in practice. By its very nature the group aimed to also promote quality in the care delivery.
An award scheme was set up to reward participating centres, in recognition of their commitment to achieving and sustaining improvements in the care of older people. The awards will be presented to each centre at the end of the programme believed to be June 2003. An important point to note is that the attainment of the award is not dependent on satisfying any particular outcome criteria, rather it is intended to mark the commitment of the centre to the whole process of the 'Centres of Excellence' project.
Aims of Centres of Excellence Programme
The overall aims of the Centres of Excellence project were twofold:
- To share experiences and expertise in gerontological nursing in order to develop and implement specific projects aimed at improving the care of older people.
- To provide a supportive forum where the skills of higher education can be combined with the skills of clinical practice to promote the implementation of evidence-based practice in the care of older people within each project area selected.
Specific Objectives of Centre of Excellence Programmes
- To provide academic and clinical support in developing, implementing and sustaining change in a specified area.
- To provide encouragement and reinforcement of improved care delivery in the form of an award for taking part in the project.
- To provide the opportunity for clinical sites to link up in order to maximise support for change and dissemination of ideas and good practice.
- To disseminate findings widely at conferences and targeted journals
- To provide a blue-print for a formal research project
Download the Project Summary and Evaluation
Attitudes to healthcare professionals working with older people by their peers
This project is being led by Dr Angela Kydd. It will involve people completing a questionnaire.
If you would like to complete a questionnaire please click here and return it to:
or post it to A. Kydd, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Education, Health and Social Sciences, UWS, Hamilton Campus, Almada Street , Lanarkshire ML3 0JB
For details of the project click here