Research project - The P-CARE Study

Developing a UK Palliative Care and Ethnicity Research Consensus Statement

This study explored the place of minoritised communities in palliative care research.

The aim was to devise recommendations and identify best practice for qualitative and quantitative research relevant to ethnicity in palliative and end-of-life care.

Project lead: Jonathan Koffman, Professor of Palliative Care and Associate Director of the Wolfson Palliative Care Research Centre, Hull York Medical School

Local lead: Dr Felicity Dewhurst, Consultant in Palliative Care at St Oswald’s Hospice

Medical Research Council

The aim was to identify methodological best practice for qualitative and quantitative research relevant to ethnicity in palliative and end-of-life care.

The objectives were to:

  1. Identify inter-disciplinary and inter-professional methodological principles that can be applied to researching ethnicity and palliative care.
  2. Identify areas where inter-disciplinary and inter-professional differences in ethnicity and palliative care research need further research.
  3. Produce a consensus statement providing methodological guidance considered best practice and research priorities for future UK studies that examine ethnicity and palliative care leading to a ‘path to patient and family benefit’.
  4. Promote awareness of the guidance to reduce methodological uncertainty and inconsistency when undertaking research and report study findings.

This study used the Delphi Method, a forecasting technique that collects the opinions of a panel of experts to reach a consensus.