P176
Patient involvement within Renal Research Department
S Hull, J Broddle, A Hazara, K James, S Bhandari
Hull & East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust
Introduction: Public and Patient Involvement (PPI) is a strategy developed from the Health
Research Authority (HRA). The main objective of the HRA is to improve the quality of
decision making within research by involving both patient and the public. It is hoped that this
produces better future research. With the new drive towards Patient and Public involvement,
The Renal Research Team at Hull extended PPI to a cohort of renal patients. The aim was to
identify the standards of practice within this area by obtaining an understanding from patients
and the public of their thoughts on research and how we could improve our service in the
future.
Method: We created a steering committee of 3 patients who had been involved in at least one
of our renal research studies in the previous 2 years, and 3 healthcare professionals For the
remaining research participants who were not part of this committee, a questionnaire was sent
out to their home address.
Results: 22 questionnaires, based upon a simple question and answer document not based on
statistical analysis were sent out, of which 14 were returned. Of the 22 patients 21 were on
haemodialysis (HD) patients and 1 a pre-dialysis patient. Of the 14 returned 1 Pre-dialysis
and 13 HD Due to the annonynimity of questionnaires we were unable to trace the remaining
8. The majority of respondents (8/14) said they were first approached by the research team
during their dialysis session. They agreed that this was appropriate. All of the patients
overwhelmingly agreed that reading materials were easy to read and understand. The
majority of patients (12/13) did not have any perceived difficulties in contacting the research
team if needed. Patient familiarity with research activity at the department was good.
Suggestions for further improvements were invited, patients suggested: notice boards at the
renal unit and regular news letters to help improve their involvement. 12 of the patients said
they would be happy to participate in future studies, with 1 patient unsure and 1 decline.
Conclusion: Patient involvement in the activities of research department, and an increased
presence during their day-to-day hospital care, can help improve patient participation in
future studies. We will use this information to add to notice boards within outpatients
departments and dialysis units, with possible newsletters. We would like to present a poster to
show Patient’s experience of being involved in a clinical trial.
By valuing patients opinions gained from their experience of being involved in research
studies, we would want this to reflect upon the instigation of future research. And thus having
a positive impact upon patient recruitment and retention in future research conducted.