PhD candidate to research rapport in end-of-life care

30 May 2019

There’s a lot of separation that needs to happen when you’re dying says PhD candidate and registered nurse Wendy English.

“You disconnect from your body, from your social life and your family, and your previous identities in the world such as your work status, whoever you were. Those things become less and less important. You’re disconnecting constantly,” says Ms English.

Ms English, who lives in Christchurch, is embarking on her PhD study into end-of-life care at the University of Auckland. Her work is being sponsored by Communio with a scholarship over three years.

But on the other hand, she says, carers need to connect with patients who are dying and look after them in a particular way.

“I think there’s emotional, psychological, and spiritual work that happens, as well as the physical work when you are dying. I think it needs great skill and care to look after people, and to try and connect with them while they’re doing that.”

“I think there are two aspects of care that are needed. You need to be present with the person who’s dying – the emotional work. Yet you’re in a place of intense task orientation; you’re very busy with lots of patients to look after, and you’re treating-treating-treating. So, balancing the two is incredibly difficult.”

Communio Managing Director David Aro says they noticed a gap in the literature on end-of-life care.

“We want to help fill that gap because this area is of huge significance and it’s only going to become more significant as we have more and more people reaching an advanced age who will then require care.”

“We thought the most pragmatic, sensible and strategic approach would be to partner with a university to support research in this area,” says Mr Aro.

“Our work in all the different services we deliver across the country is based on best practice. This research will help to contribute to best practice. We always look at all the relevant research and information and apply it in our work, and we’ll be doing the same with this.”

Ms English recently completed a Master’s degree at the University of Canterbury in health sciences looking at the area of rapport.

“I called it ‘the moments we meet’. I interviewed nurses, patients and families about how they experienced rapport in palliative care.”

“But I felt like there was more to say about rapport. What I’d found in my Master’s study, as is often the case with study, is that you’re left with more questions.”

“When I first read the information describing the scholarship from Communio which aims ‘to improve end-of-life care for patients and family,’ I thought, ‘crikey, that’s a big ask for a piece of study’. I needed to make sure it was a realistic goal, because it felt like a high bar. But after much thinking and talking to a number of people I felt I could contribute to this area.”

“I hope to produce something that’s practical, that’s going to make a difference now, or as soon as it’s available to those providing patient and family care. I think that would be a success.”

Ms English will undertake research over the next six months to a year to determine her thesis within the area of end-of-life care. She will then focus on the research to answer her thesis.

“I don’t know how long it will take, but it will be a few years!” says Ms English.