NIHR Applied Research Collaboration
Our group actively works together with research partners, professionals and communities to improve palliative and end of life care provision. Dr Ben Bowers is the Palliative and End of Life Care Deputy Theme Lead for the National Institute of Health Research’s Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) in the East of England. Building on our established collaborations across universities, service providers and practitioners, we aim to ensure grounded relevance, dissemination and implementation of research. To achieve this we plan to:
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Engage with the populations-in-focus to undertake research where it is most needed and will be implemented.
- Undertake research on inequalities in service provision, out-of-hours care and multi-morbidity.
- Co-lead a national cross-ARC PEoLC collaboration with Professor Higginson (South London ARC), involving national charities and researchers.
Patient and Public Involvement
We work closely with members of patients, their carers and members of the public to ensure that our research is relevant to the lives of those with experience of palliative and end of life care. Our Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) group provide important insights and feedback on our work at various stages throughout the research process: from inception to publication. Here are some of our recent publications which were co-produced with PPI group members:
- Hopkins SA, Lovick R, Polak L, Bowers B, Morgan T, Kelly MP, Barclay S. Reassessing advance care planning in the light of covid-19. BMJ. 2020 May 18;369:m1927. doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m1927 10.1136/bmj.m1927. PMID: 32423988.
- Bowers B, Lovick R, Pollock K, Barclay S. Patient and public involvement in general practice research. British Journal of General Practice 2020; 70 (694): 220-221 https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp20X709457
- Farquhar M, Penfold C, Benson J, Lovick R, Mahadeva R, et al. (2017) Six key topics informal carers of patients with breathlessness in advanced disease want to learn about and why: MRC phase I study to inform an educational intervention. PLOS ONE 12(5): e0177081. doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0177081
Community Nursing Research Forum
The Forum supports community nurses with research opportunities, peer support and mentorship.
Please visit the Forum webpage to learn more.
The forum was co-founded and is led by Dr Ben Bowers, clinical academic community nurse and researcher with PELiCam.