Gatekeeping

Context. Despite international guidelines emphasizing consumer-directed care and autonomous decisions in research participation, there is a common myth that research can be an additional and unwanted burden on patients and their family members. Objectives. To examine the experiences and impact of research involvement on family caregivers (FCs) of terminally ill people, focusing within home-based palliative care. Methods.

This paper highlights some of the challenges encountered when recruiting older people with heart failure into longitudinal, community-based research. It draws on the experience gained in a study to provide insights into the palliative care needs of older people with heart failure and the timing and need for service interventions. Five hundred and forty-two people with heart failure (New York Heart Association (NYHA) stages II-IV) and 213 of their informal carers were recruited from primary care practices in four areas of the UK.

In keeping with developments in children's rights, research is increasingly including the views of children. Accessing a hard to reach population of children can, however, raise significant ethical and methodological challenges for researchers. Negotiating access through gatekeepers, securing parental consent and limits on confidentiality are central issues in the recruitment process of children. This paper is based on a qualitative study of young carers in the Irish population.

Aim(s) of the study. This study explores the relationship between informal carers of older people, and health care workers within the context of a hospital ward. Through an analysis of their language-based encounters the purpose of the study was to identify the discursive processes involved in face-to-face informal carer-health care worker interactions, during the course of carers’ visits to one elderly care rehabilitation hospital ward.