Improving Dementia Care Quality in Hospitals and Care Homes

This research proposal outlines a study aimed at improving the quality of care for people living with dementia in hospitals and care homes, specifically focusing on Liverpool Care Homes. The project begins with an introduction highlighting the importance of quality care in healthcare, particularly for dementia patients, and the need for high-quality services due to the cognitive and social challenges associated with the disease. The study will employ a qualitative research methodology, collecting data through primary (questionnaires) and secondary methods. The research aims to identify the importance of quality care, determine ways to improve care, identify challenges faced by care homes, and provide recommendations. The proposal includes a critical review of existing literature, examining factors that contribute to quality care, such as skilled staff, customer satisfaction, and the challenges related to funding and staffing. A project plan with defined tasks, durations, and predecessors is also presented, along with the procedures for data collection and analysis, ensuring ethical considerations are addressed. The research will use an inductive approach and a descriptive research design, with a sample of 25 family members of people suffering from Dementia, analyzed using thematic analysis.

RESEARCH PROJECT
PROPOSAL

TABLE OF CONTENTS
TOPIC:.............................................................................................................................................1
LO.1.................................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Project Specification.............................................................................................................1
1.2 Factors Contribute that contribute to the process of research project selection....................2
1.3 Undertake Critical Review....................................................................................................3
1.4 Project plan............................................................................................................................5
1.5 Procedures.............................................................................................................................5
LO.2.................................................................................................................................................6
2.1 Resources efficiently to the research questions....................................................................6
2.2 Proposed research investigation in accordance with the agreed specification and
procedures...................................................................................................................................7
2.3 Record and Collate Relevant Data........................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

TOPIC:
How to improve the quality of care in hospital and care homes for people living and
suffering with Dementia.
LO.1
1.1 Project Specification.
Introduction and Research Background
In healthcare industry, quality is the core element as they are expected to deliver 100
percent of quality care. The fact is that patient is the most essential person in medical care system
that should be recognised by all those who work in the system. Dementia is a general term for a
decline in mental ability to severe enough to interfere with the daily life. Memory loss is an
example of Dimensia (Birch and Draper, 2008). It is not a specific diseases instead it describes a
group of symptoms affecting memory, thinking and social abilities severely enough to interface
daily life. This, to treat the patients suffering from Dementia needs quality of care.
Health carer is the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disease, illness, injury and
other physical and mental impairment in human beings. The person who suffers from Dementia
needs to high quality care because patients do not able to recognises the short term memories, do
not able to find the right words. Changes in mood (depression), loss of interest ion hobbies or
activities, not able to complete normal work, lots of confusions, falling sense of direction, being
repetitive and many other critical issues. In addition to this, it is not only enough to provide
quality of care to only patient suffering from Dementia but it is very important to provide quality
of services to each and every person.
This present research is based on the quality of care associated with the people suffering
from Dementia and people living in the country. Liverpool care homes is being chosen for study.
It is one of he most popular care home in UK which offers a wide range of care facilitates in
order to suit several needs as well as offers residential, palliative, nursing and respire care.
Furthermore, the research study is based on qualitative methods as researcher will collect
data from both primary and secondary methods. For primary research, survey will be conducted
and data will collected via questionnaire. Further researcher will also include, research
approaches, design and sampling, data collection , data analysis (Goddard, 2013). Moreover,
scholar will ensure the ethical considerations as consent is informed, participants are adults and
all other ethical standards will be considered by scholar effectively.
1

Aim and Objectives
Aim:
“To explore the ways to improve the quality of care in hospital and care homes for people
living and suffering from Dimensia. A study on Liverpool Care Homes”.
Objectives:
 To identify the importance of quality of care services in care homes and hospital.
 To determine the ways of managing improvement in the quality of care for people living
and suffering from Dementia Liverpool Care Homes.
 To identify the challenges faced by care homes and hospitals in maintaining the quality of
care for people suffering from Dementia.
 To provide recommendations for managing improvement in the quality of care for
people living and suffering from Dementia Liverpool Care Homes.
Research Questions:
1. What is the important of quality of care services delivered in care homes and hospital?
2. What are the ways of managing improvement in the quality of care for people living and
suffering from Dementia Liverpool Care Homes?
3. What are the the challenges faced by care homes and hospitals in maintaining the quality
of care for people suffering from Dementia?
4. What are the recommendations for managing improvement in the quality of care for
people living and suffering from Dementia Liverpool Care Homes?
1.2 Factors Contribute that contribute to the process of research project selection.
There are various factors that contribute to the process of research project selection which
are as follows-
Current Issues: This is one of the critical factors that leads to the selection of this topic
it is because it has been noticed and identified from various reports that quality in care is not
maintained by the care homes which influenced the health of patients (Brooker, 2015). Liverpool
care homes is also not giving attention to the quality as there staff members used to abuse older
people. Thus, quality concern is the current issues which also contributed to the selection of this
topic.
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Cost: Cost is also one of the most essential elements which is ensured by the researcher
prior selection of the research topic. Researcher will plan budget and allocate cost to each and
every task. The cost incurred in this present research study will be approximately £ 5000.
Personal Interest and Familiar with context: Researcher is personally interested in
topic as scholar has adequate and efficient knowledge on the importance of quality of care for
people living as well as people suffering from Dementia. Investigator is very well familiar with
the Dementia (Minkman, Ligthart and Huijsman, 2009). Researcher is very interested in
understanding and identifying the reason that why care homes are not able to provide quality of
services.
1.3 Undertake Critical Review.
According to the Brorson and et.al., (2014) quality is very important in the healthcare
industry, it is because healthcare is very sensitive industry. The truth is that patient is the most
essential person in medical care system that should be recognised by all those who work in the
system. If quality factor is ignore than it sis not possible to achieve the desire goals and
objectives. Quality is essential for al the people living in United Kingdom but the person who are
suffering from Dementia needs high quality of services. It is because dementia patients could not
able to complete the normal work in there routine life, they loss there memory even sometime
there name as well. So, quality is very critical factors that care homes and hospitals should
consider for providing effective services. However, Kane, (2015) said that, the best way to judge
the quality is level of customer satisfaction as it is effective parameter for quality analysis.
Further, it is also essential because it tells how the health system is performing as well as leading
to improve he care.
As per the views of Van der Steen and et.al., (2014) there are various ways of managing
improvement in the quality of care for people living and suffering from Dementia and people
living in the country. The first and primary methods to improve the quality is skilled and
knowledgeable care takers should be hire. Al soft skills are required in the care services
especially for patients of Dementia such as love and belongingness skills, friendly person, sense
of patience and excellent understanding skills. For example the case of Liverpool Care home, as
staff members use to abuse older people which shows that care takers are lacking in all soft skills
which is needs to treat patients. However Boelens-Van Der Knoo and et.al., (2016) aid that,
another way to improve the quality of services is that management should formulate a team and
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that team is responsible for inspecting the campus in a week. They use to meet patients and ask
question about the services they are getting. But Dreier-Wolfgramm and et.al., (2017) argues
that, this method is good but it is only suitable for small and medium scale hospitals and care
homes because it is not possible in big hospitals to ask question personally from all patients as
well as patients suffering from Dementia is not in situation to give correct answers because of the
disease and illness. Beernaert and et.al., (2016) articulates that, the best and reliable methods to
bring improvement in the quality of services care homes are providing. KPI use to provide
information and feedback by measuring the performance gap within organisation which helps
management in decision making activity. KPI also help in checking level of customer
satisfaction which also aids to take timely action before affecting the image of the care home in
the market place.
As per the findings of McInerney and et.al., (2018) In United Kingdom, Care homes
becoming ever-increasing important part of nation healthcare system. Quality is important and it
is admissible but care homes faced many challenges in providing and maintaining quality of
services to the people living and people suffering from Dementia. These challenges are related to
funding, overseas staff, career pathways, recruitment and selection of staff and education &
research. As per the Hirakawa, Chiang and Aoyama, (2017) the greatest challenge is the
selection and recruitment of staff members in the care homes as in UK inadequate staffing is
argue the catalyst for most of the challenges which care home face. It is very costly affair for
care homes to bear the cost of recruitment on regular basis. The person who suffers from
Dementia needs to high quality care because patients do not able to recognises the short term
memories, do not able to find the right words.
However, Shih and et.al., (2017) articulates another challenges which care home faced in
providing quality of services is funding as the present model of funding in UK is likely the most
signifiant issue affecting the long term sustainability of care homes. For example, the case of
Souther Cross Care provider which got collapsed in 2011 due to financial crisis which results in
homelessness to more than 3000 residents. Thus, it clearly shows that funding is one of the
critical issue which is faced by the care homes. But Verreault and et.al., (2018) argues that
overseas staff is the critical challenge faced by care homes in UK because of constant changes in
the demographics. The main reason is high labour turnover especially registered nurses and more
than half of the nurses have less than three years of experience in nursing.
4

Another challenge is poorly defined career pathways which is faced by care homes in
maintaining the quality of services in UK and this is another reason of high labour turnover
which results in high quality concerns as said by Birch and Draper, (2008) It is very important
that there must be clear pathways so that the leaders in care workers will be developed which
results in rising the value of the care home nurses in the community.
1.4 Project plan.
Task Name Duration Start Finish Predecessors
Research proposal 1 Week Mon 18-03-
19 Tue 19-03-19
Aims and objectives 2 Week Wed 20-03-
19
Mon 25-03-
19 1
Research methodologies 3 Week Wed 20-03-
19 Thu 28-03-19 1
Data collection 4 Week Tue 26-03-19 Thu 04-04-19 2
Data analysis 5 Week Fri 29-03-19 Wed 03-04-
19 3
Data interpretation 6 Week Fri 05-04-19 Thu 11-04-19 4
Finding and conclusion 7 Week Fri 05-04-19 Mon 08-04-
19 2,4
Recommendations 8 Week Fri 12-04-19 Fri 12-04-19 5,6
Execute the plan 9 Week Tue 09-04-19 Tue 09-04-19 7
Submission 9 Week Mon 15-04-
19
Mon 15-04-
19 8,9
1.5 Procedures
Research Methodologies Selection of Methodologies
Research Methods Qualitative Methods
Research Approach Inductive Approach
Research Design Descriptive Research Design
Sampling 25 Family members of people suffering from
Dementia randomly. Probabilistic Sampling
will be used.
Data Collection Both Primary (Questionnaire) and Secondary.
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Data Analysis Qualitative Methods in which thematic
analysis will be done.
Ethical Consideration  All consent are informed.
 Respondents are adults
 Participation of vulnerable are ignored.
 Data will be collected from authentic
sources.
 Security and Privacy of data will be
maintained.
Research limitations  Cost limitations
 Time limitations
 Lack of information
LO.2
2.1 Resources efficiently to the research questions
Resources are very important for completing the research very effectively and efficiently.
Resources play a very important role in this present study, Here are the various types of
resources considered b y the researcher in executing this research which are as follows-
Financial Consideration: In order to complete the research, fund is very important to
include. It is because, if proper fund is not there, it is not possible to complete the task in
effective way. By having adequate fund, researcher will able to buy materials which are required
like stationery, laptops, USB's, human resources, financial resources, cloud resources and other
items (Singh and Chana, 2016). Funds also provide opportunities to employ all important things
for the research.
Time: Time is also very important to consider because the effectiveness and efficiency of
the research study is depends on this factor. It is because, if research study is not completed on
time than study is of no use. The researcher will complete this research in dot 9 weeks.
Availability of Data: The data about the Dementia and importance of quality services for
people living is easily available on internet and other secondary sources. Information about the
Liverpool care homes is also available on internet which is also one a good opportunity for
6

researcher to explore the ways to improve the quality of care in hospital and care homes for
people living and suffering from Dimensia.
Experts: In completing this studies, researcher will also have availability of experts, like
professors, lecturers and others who all the issues are solved easily. Researcher will also take
advises from healthcare professionals and also consider the research papers of Dementia
professionals.
2.2 Proposed research investigation in accordance with the agreed specification and procedures.
It is very important that research study or investigation must be moved in the direction in
which gaols and objectives are achieved in a systematic manner. The research question should be
addressed accordingly. Thus, researcher use various techniques in order to maintain the
reliability and validity of the research which are as follows-
Systematic Monitoring: Systematic monitoring is very important in maintaining the the
reliability and validity of the research study. If timely monitoring is not done than it is not
possible to answer the research question according or solve the research problems in a designated
manner. Researcher will assist the responsibility to a team member for systematic monitoring so
that researcher can do there further work (Tian, Risku and Collin, 2016). Through, proper
monitoring, it becomes easy for researcher in decision making and taking action at the spot so
that result do not vary. Researcher will use balance score card as it is best tool for performance
management as it helps to keep track of the execution of activities by the staff within their
control along with monitoring the consequences arising from these actions.
Continuous Evaluation: This is another factor which is very important for researcher to
consider while doing the research study. It is because, if continuous monitoring is not done
properly that it might be happen the end result of the study is not perfect. Further, to maintain the
relevancy of the research, it is also very essential for scholar to conduct continuous evaluation. In
formulating of aim researcher will evaluated many objectives and prepared only one. After that
in selection of research methodologies, researcher will ensure the pros and cons of each methods
and than the select the best and suitable methods for collection, analysis and interpretation of
data. On the other hand, the tools researcher use for continuous evaluation is Key performance
Indicator (KPI), as this is one of the best indicator to check the performance on continuous basis.
Extraneous Factors: These are the factors which is irrelevant or unrelated to the
research study. These factors are also called undesirable variables in the study. There are various
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external factors which are not hand of the researcher to control but it influenced the study. For
example, in assembling data, there are many websites which need to be taken permission for
access to complete the research which sometimes charge high cost. But because of need of
information, researcher will pay to access the information. Further, researcher will also have to
bear the library fees for generating research paper of different authors.
2.3 Record and Collate Relevant Data
Researcher will collect data from audio, visual and written document, videos and from all
the sources. Researcher will listen the various audio's of healthcare professionals to gather the
information of the particular topic. Further, scholar will also read various researcher papers of
experts and collet the information about the Dementia disease (Chiang and Zhang, 2016). The
entire data will be systematically referenced by authentic sources so that validity of the research
will be maintain till conclusion.
Spreadsheet will also be used by researcher for data analysis and will be saved in the
laptop for future. All the tables and graphs will, be prepared in the spreadsheet so that there will
not mistake or errors in the evaluation and interpretation of data. In addition to this, regular
editing will also be done by researcher if there is requirements or changes occur in the external
policies. Thus, researcher will record and collate the relevant data is a very systematic and
appropriate manner.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Beernaert, K., Deliens, L., De Vleminck, A., Devroey, D., Pardon, K., Block, L.V.D. and Cohen,
J., 2016. Is there a need for early palliative care in patients with life-limiting illnesses?
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Birch, D. and Draper, J., 2008. A critical literature review exploring the challenges of delivering
effective palliative care to older people with dementia. Journal of clinical nursing, 17(9),
pp.1144-1163.
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F., De Lange, J. and SchöLzel-Dorenbos, C.J., 2016. Quality of life in dementia in
perspective: An explorative study of variations in opinions among people with dementia
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Alder, C., Vollmar, H.C., Thyrian, J.R., Wucherer, D., Zwingmann, I. and Hoffmann, W.,
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Kane, R.A., 2015. Long-term care and a good quality of life: Bringing them closer together. The
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Minkman, M.M., Ligthart, S.A. and Huijsman, R., 2009. Integrated dementia care in The
Netherlands: a multiple case study of case management programmes. Health & social care
in the community, 17(5), pp.485-494.
Shih, Y.H., Pai, M.C., Huang, Y.C. and Wang, J.J., 2017. Sundown syndrome, sleep quality, and
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Francke, A.L., Jünger, S., Gove, D., Firth, P. and Koopmans, R.T., 2014. White paper
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Verreault, R., Arcand, M., Misson, L., Durand, P.J., Kroger, E., Aubin, M., Savoie, M.,
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