Care home staff wanted for Covid-19 visiting policies study
Care home staff are invited to participate in a study that will assess the development and implementation of care home visiting policies during Covid-19.
During the pandemic, care homes have had to balance the risk of Covid-19 transmission against resident’s ability to see their close relatives and friends and the impact this can have on their well-being. We know that this has been extremely challenging.
A group of researchers at the London School of Economics and colleagues from Care England have been given funding by the National Institute of Health Research to carry out research into how care homes made these challenging decisions in practice, how far government’s Covid-19 guidance on visiting arrangements helped them and what other support they needed.
The findings from the study will help to inform government policy and practices and will help prepare for similar crises in the future.
To do this, researchers need to hear from care home staff. They are seeking care home managers (or a nominated senior staff member) to share their views, opinions and experiences in a short online qualitative survey.
The survey will take around 20-30 minutes to complete and can also be done over the phone or Zoom. Participants will also be asked to share their visiting policy.
Participants will be asked to explain their views and experiences by writing a short paragraph or two for each question. For this reason, the survey is only made up of 10 main questions.
Participant’s information will be entirely confidential; only the research team will be able to view answers. The views and experiences will then be communicated to the government and other stakeholders.
Following the survey, optional hour-long, in-depth interviews will be carried out. There is no obligation to participate in the interviews however, those who do take part will be provided with £50 for their activity fund.
Those wishing to participate should email info@careengland.org.uk
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