Research Blog
This page contains blog articles produced by Palliative Care Research Network (PCRN) and Early Career Researcher Forum (ECRF) members.
If you are a member of our research network or forum and want to share your research experience, knowledge and/or findings in a blog article please contact Dr Emer Brangan, Research Impact Project Manager, ebrangan@aiihpc.org
Latest PCRN Blog Articles

What do the general public know about palliative care and advance care planning in Northern Ireland?
What do the public know about palliative care and advance care planning in Northern Ireland ? Do you ever think about how you would like

Rethinking supportive relationships among people with life-limiting illness and family caregivers in palliative care
Rethinking supportive relationships among people with life-limiting illness and family caregivers in palliative care Author: Dr Geraldine Foley, Trinity College Dublin Keywords: Palliative care, support, relationship, patients,

Palliative Care as a Human Right
Palliative Care as a Human Right Author: Dr John Lombard, University of Limerick Keywords: Human Rights, Law, Health, UDHR The concept of a right to palliative care
Latest ECRF Blog Articles

Music therapy: providing a bridge back to life after loss for informal carers
Music therapy: providing a bridge back to life after loss for informal carers Author: Dr Kathryn Gillespie, Queen’s University Belfast Published: September 2022 Keywords: Music

Enhancing dementia care using pet robots; moving research into real-world practice
What are pet robots?
Pet therapy can have health and social benefits for people living with dementia. However, using live pets may be challenging. For instance, some care facilities may not allow animals…..

Dementia & Technology; tools that can help maintain our relationships are worth exploring
Person-centred care describes a holistic care philosophy that focuses on prioritising the care recipient’s views and wishes. In other words, the person comes before the disease. For caregivers of people living with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, it can become increasingly challenging to know the individual’s preferences…

Engaging the Young Public with Palliative Care
Engaging the Young Public with Palliative Care Author: Dr Anita Mallon, Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Queens University Belfast Date of publication: December 2021

Difficult but important conversations: Advance care planning for children receiving palliative care
When a child is receiving palliative care, early conversations in a calm environment are recommended to identify family values, plan for future care, and make decisions. However, these conversations often start too late, or during a crisis.

Volunteers’ experiences of providing bereavement care to parents following the diagnosis of a fatal fetal anomaly
The term fatal fetal anomaly is a condition that will likely lead to the death of the fetus within utero or within the neonatal period (28 days of life) despite active treatment. While this definition is generally accepted, there is no universally agreed definition of what constitutes a fatal fetal anomaly…

eLearning course to help you assess and treat people with palliative care needs experiencing constipation
Do you want to develop your knowledge and skills to learn how to improve the quality of life of people receiving palliative care and experiencing constipation? If yes, our free eLearning course is for you.

How Can We Better Support Older Male Caregivers?
Caregiving has traditionally been viewed as a female activity, which has resulted in caregiving research being mainly focussed on the experiences of female participants….

Palliative care in Intensive Care Units: A PhD Research Study
The majority of patients in ICU are over 65 years, have chronic illnesses and multi-morbidities (National Office of Clinical Audit, 2020). ICU survivors can have life-limiting illnesses, poor quality-of-life and have a high mortality…

High C-Reactive Protein (CRP) as a Predictor of Specialist Palliative Care Needs
Early specialist palliative care in cancer is associated with better patient outcomes. “Red flags” to identify people with specialist palliative care needs who are at risk of high symptom burden and poor quality of life could prompt a comprehensive assessment and early referral….

Challenges and support needs of parents and children when a parent is at end of life
The ‘Family-Centred Cancer Care team at Ulster University have been leading a programme of work since 2007. The primary aim of our work is to promote positive coping for families impacted by parental cancer..

Needs-based innovation for the management of malignant pleural effusions in the palliative care setting
The HSE has outlined that one of the major challenges relating to adult palliative care is the growing demand for services due to our ageing population….