Can Healthcare Assistant Training (CHAT) improve the relational care of older people? Study protocol for a pilot cluster-randomised controlled trial

Arthur, Antony, Maben, Jill, Wharrad, Heather, Aldus, Clare ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0197-2755, Sarre, Sophie, Schneider, Justine, Nicholson, Caroline, Barton, Garry, Cox, Karen and Clark, Allan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2965-8941 (2015) Can Healthcare Assistant Training (CHAT) improve the relational care of older people? Study protocol for a pilot cluster-randomised controlled trial. Trials, 16. ISSN 1745-6215

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Abstract

Background People aged 75 years and over account for one in four of all hospital admissions. There has been increasing recognition of problems in the care of older people, particularly in hospitals. Evidence suggests that older people judge the care they receive in terms of kindness, empathy, compassion, respectful communication and being seen as a person not just a patient. These are aspects of care to which we refer when we use the term 'relational care'. Healthcare assistants deliver an increasing proportion of direct care to older people, yet their training needs are often overlooked. Methods/design This study will determine the acceptability and feasibility of a cluster randomised controlled trial of 'Older People's Shoes' a two-day training intervention for healthcare assistants caring for older people in hospital. Within this pilot, two-arm, parallel, cluster randomised controlled trial, healthcare assistants within acute hospital wards are randomised to either the two-day training intervention or training as usual. Registered nurses deliver 'Older People's Shoes' over two days, approximately one week apart. It contains three components: experiential learning about ageing, exploration of older people's stories, and customer care. Outcomes will be measured at the level of patient (experience of emotional care and quality of life during their hospital stay), healthcare assistant (empathy and attitudes towards older people), and ward (quality of staff/patient interaction). Semi-structured interviews of a purposive sample of healthcare assistants receiving the intervention, and all trainers delivering the intervention, will be undertaken to gain insights into the experiences of both the intervention and the trial, and its perceived impact on practice. Trial registration The study was registered as an International Standard Randomised Contolled Trial (ISRCTN10385799) on 29 December 2014.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2015 Arthur et al. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	pilot,feasibility,cluster randomised controlled trial,older people,healthcare assistants,nursing,hospital care,empathy,training
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > School of Health Sciences Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Norwich Medical School
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Health in Later Life (former - to 2017) Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Epidemiology and Public Health Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Dementia & Complexity in Later Life Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Norwich Clinical Trials Unit Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Health Services and Primary Care Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Public Health and Health Services Research (former - to 2023) Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Health Economics Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Health Promotion Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Norwich Epidemiology Centre Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Norwich Epidemiology Centre Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Centres > Population Health
Depositing User:	Pure Connector
Date Deposited:	22 Dec 2015 14:07
Last Modified:	19 Oct 2023 01:33
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/55855
DOI:	10.1186/s13063-015-1077-3

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