Evidence Base, Research and Evaluation
Measuring change to discern improvements and areas for further development is intrinsic to all improvement thinking, and has been a feature of GSF from the start.
This section is to be regularly updated.
University based evaluations and local audits across the country have shown that GSF improves:
- Attitude, Approach and Awareness - increasing openness and confidence of staff.
- Patterns and processes - improving practical systems of care.
- Outcomes for patients and carers - more dying where they choose, more having a say in their care, greater control etc.
There has been extensive evaluation of GSF at all stages, using before and after quantitative and qualitative methodology, audits and several research studies. However, there are obvious difficulties in measuring all aspects of this area of care, and some important features are difficult to measure, such as overall improvement in care, communication improvements and qualitative benefits to patients etc.
