CLAHRC Fellows have supported the CLAHRC to connect with healthcare practitioners in the community and to implement research findings.

Katy Harrison is End of Life Care Facilitator in Peterboroughwith a background in District Nursing. As part of her 2011 CLAHRC Fellowship, Katy worked on a study of symptom management in End of Life Care. The study investigated the views of General Practitioners and Community Nurses concerning their management of symptoms; their views of local out of hours care provision; and their preferences for further education. She also worked on a systematic literature review and attended the CLARHC workshops and action learning sets.

In response to the needs identified through the research, Katy organised joint meetings with GPs, District Nurses and care home staff to improve their understanding of each other’s roles in delivering end of life care.

The CLAHRC workshops on organisational change and change management helped her to adopt new working practices, for example to introduce monthly “Gold Standard” meetings to promote the use of End of Life Care tools.

Through the CLAHRC Katy developed new contacts and relationships and raised awareness of her role in end of life care in the region.

“I have really enjoyed meeting so many people from different research areas that I wasn’t familiar with before, and having time out of my job to understand research better so that I can put it into use.”

Beyond the CLAHRC Fellowship, Katy is planning to continue delivering communication workshops, and promoting research based ideas through local conferences.