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Care of the dying: a qualitative exploration of Foundation Year doctors’ experiences
Author(s) -
Redman Melody,
Pearce Jessica,
Gajebasia Sareena,
Johnson Miriam,
Finn Gabrielle
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
medical education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.776
H-Index - 138
eISSN - 1365-2923
pISSN - 0308-0110
DOI - 10.1111/medu.13358
Subject(s) - foundation (evidence) , conceptual framework , context (archaeology) , qualitative research , the conceptual framework , nursing , medicine , end of life care , psychology , medical education , palliative care , sociology , geography , history , social science , archaeology , performance art , art history
Context Foundation Year doctors ( FY s), who are newly qualified, are expected to provide care for dying patients. Experiences at this early mandatory stage of training may form the foundation for future encounters, but little is documented about what these experiences involve. The aim of this research was to explore the experiences of FY s in caring for the dying, using the recently published Priorities for Care of the Dying Person as a conceptual framework, to identify areas for improvement in education and clinical practice. Methods Semi‐structured group and individual interviews were conducted to explore the experiences of FY s and how these relate to the five aspects of Priorities for Care of the Dying Person : ‘recognise’, ‘communicate’, ‘involve’, ‘support’ and ‘plan and do’. All FY s in the North Yorkshire and East Coast Foundation School ( n =335) were invited to participate and 47 FY s were recruited from five sites through convenience sampling and snowballing. Recordings were transcribed verbatim and a framework analysis approach was used with the published Priorities for Care of the Dying Person guidelines as a conceptual framework. Results Five main themes and 13 subthemes emerged from the data. The five main themes, which mapped to the conceptual framework, were: recognition that the patient is dying; communication with the patient, family and other staff; involvement of the patient and family in their care; support for the dying person and their family; and planning and carrying out good care of the dying. Examples of when things are done poorly or done well were shared, giving context to experience. Conclusions Areas for improvement were identified around all five main themes. These will be useful for informing those involved in undergraduate and foundation training on how to improve the experiences of Foundation Year doctors and thereby improve patient care.