Anticipatory Prescribing (AP) is the prescribing of injectable medications for community end of life care in advance of need, to ensure that appropriate medication is readily available should troubling symptoms arise in the final phase of life. We aim to explore what healthcare professionals, working in different palliative and end of life care settings, considered to be good and bad AP practice.
Summary
There is a lack of evidence to determine what is best AP practice, although it is used widely across the nation. The aim of this study was to explore what healthcare professionals, working in different palliative and end of life care settings, consider to be best and poor AP practice.
There were a total of 30 focus groups lasting about 1 hour and fifteen minutes, with 6 to 9 participants. All discussions were recorded and transcribed to allow qualitative analysis.
Project aims
We aimed to investigate UK clinicians’ experiences and thoughts on AP practice, namely:
- What does good AP practice look like?
- What does poor AP practice look like?
Project activity
We have completed analysis and are in the final writing stages of the first manuscript.
What we found and what this means
The first scientific publication of this piece of work will be out soon. We aim to have at least one more scientific publication.
The potential impact will be generating recommendations for best AP practice and possibly a recommendation for developing national guidelines for AP practice, regardless of setting of care. This project included the below:
- Submit and publish the first scientific publication.
- Discuss and decide on a possible second scientific publication.
- Discuss and decide on a possible study concerning the development of national AP guidelines.
Who was involved?
Principle Investigator
Dr Stephen Barclay (sigb2@medschl.cam.ac.uk), University of Cambridge
Researchers and institutions
- Dr Bárbara Antunes (bc521@medschl.cam.ac.uk), University of Cambridge (Member of the Primary Care Unit’s Palliative and End of Life Care research group. Association for Palliative Medicine of the United Kingdom and Ireland.)
- Ben Bowers (bb527@medschl.cam.ac.uk), University of Cambridge (Member of the Primary Care Unit’s Palliative and End of Life Care research group. Association for Palliative Medicine of the United Kingdom and Ireland.)
Contact us
Dr Stephen Barclay, sigb2@medschl.cam.ac.uk
