Research into child admission to hospital: can you help?
Parents are invited to take part in a focus group to help researchers learn more about what happens before a child with an infectious illness is admitted to hospital.
Meningitis Research Foundation is supporting the research team who hope to find important answers about the care of children. Given the lack of research exploring the pre-hospital pathways of children with infectious illness, researchers say identification of all steps in the child’s journey to hospital admission is urgently needed so that solutions based on evidence can be developed.
Parents of a child who has been admitted to hospital with a serious infectious illness between 2011-2018, and who was aged 0-5 years at the time of hospital admission from across England are invited to participate. The researchers hope to hear from both parents whose child recovered, and parents who tragically lost their child due to their infection, if they feel comfortable sharing their experience.
Infection is a major cause of childhood deaths in the UK and globally, particularly in the first five years of life, yet little is known about factors influencing children’s journeys to hospital with serious infectious illness. The parents’ focus group will provide information for a research project called Before Arrive at Hospital (BeArH) and you can find out more about getting involved here.
If you would like to find out more contact Kim Woodbridge-Dodd, researcher from the University of Northampton on kim.woodbridge-dodd@northampton.ac.uk, 01604 892443.