RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Considerations and recommendations for conducting qualitative research interviews with palliative and end-of-life care patients in the home setting: a consensus paper
JF BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care
JO BMJ Support Palliat Care
FD British Medical Journal Publishing Group
SP e14
OP e14
DO 10.1136/bmjspcare-2015-000892
VO 9
IS 1
A1 Sivell, Stephanie
A1 Prout, Hayley
A1 Hopewell-Kelly, Noreen
A1 Baillie, Jessica
A1 Byrne, Anthony
A1 Edwards, Michelle
A1 Harrop, Emily
A1 Noble, Simon
A1 Sampson, Catherine
A1 Nelson, Annmarie
YR 2019
UL http://spcare.bmj.com/content/9/1/e14.abstract
AB Objectives To present and discuss the views of researchers at an academic palliative care research centre on research encounters with terminally ill patients in the home setting and to generate a list of recommendations for qualitative researchers working in palliative and end-of-life care.Methods Eight researchers took part in a consensus meeting to discuss their experiences of undertaking qualitative interviews. The researchers were of varying backgrounds and all reported having experience in interviewing terminally ill patients, and all but one had experience of interviewing patients in their home environment.Results The main areas discussed by researchers included: whether participation in end-of-life research unintentionally becomes a therapeutic experience or an ethical concern; power relationships between terminally ill patients and researchers; researcher reflexivity and reciprocity; researchers’ training needs. Qualitative methods can complement the home environment; however, it can raise ethical and practical challenges, which can be more acute in the case of research undertaken with palliative and patients at the end-of-life.Conclusions The ethical and practical challenges researchers face in this context has the potential to place both participant and researcher at risk for their physical and psychological well-being. We present a set of recommendations for researchers to consider prior to embarking on qualitative research in this context and advocate researchers in this field carefully consider the issues presented on a study-by-study basis.