Professor Nancy Preston
Professor of Supportive and Palliative CareResearch Overview
I have three main areas of research. Firstly symptom control in the last year of life and how best to support patients. I am particularly interested in the movement of fluid in the body. Secondly I am interested in service delivery in particular how we improve access of palliative care through integrated palliative care and advance care planning. Through work with PhD students this has led to work in assisted dying. Finally I am interested in research methodology in palliative care. Given the vulnerable group of people we work with there are challenges in recruitment and missing data.
Current Research
ACTION A multi-centre cluster randomized controlled trial of of advanced care planning - an innovative Palliative care Intervention to Improve Quality of Life in Oncology (European Union FP7)
Insup-C Patient Centred integrated palliative care in advanced cancer and chronic disease (European Union FP7)
SUPPORTED: the development of an abdominal support binder for the management of ascites (Lancaster University Impact Award)
Cochrane Systematic review on Strategies to Improve Recruitment to Research Studies via Health Professionals
Cochrane Systematic Review on the Management of Pleural Effusion
Research Interests
Not surprisingly at the end of life people experience more symptoms. I am interested in symptom burden particularly how fluid moves around the body. I have conducted research in ascites (fluid in the abdomen), pleural effusions (fluid on the lungs) and lymphoedema (fluid in the limbs). I have been developing a support garment for people with ascites to wear whether due to a malignancy, liver disease or another cause. This garments offers support and has the potential to help control the build-up of fluid.
Palliative care is still largely received by people with cancer. I am interested in how we integrate palliative care to other services to improve uptake of services and dissemination of the principles of palliative care in general care. As part of the European Funded Study we produced a summary of our findings in a MOOC (a massive open online course which is free to join) which currently about 8000 people participated in and a free online book which can be downloaded http://www.insup-c.eu/. I am part of a second EU funded study looking at the use of advance care planning which will complete in 2019 https://www.action-acp.eu/. I am also interested in developing the scope of palliative care and helped evaluate a project called Hospice in your Care Home and I am currently involved in a feasibility study of an intervention for people with advance dementia called Namaste http://www.namastetrial.org.uk/index.php/the-trial.
I have a strong research interest in methodology research in relation to how to conduct research with palliative care patients who are a vulnerable group. I was the co-lead for the methodology theme for the Cancer Experiences collaborative (CECo) where I developed an interest in recruitment issues in palliative care research. I was also the senior research fellow on a project to develop guidelines on conducting research in palliative care through a grant from the MRC called MORECare. MORECare guidance develops the MRC guidance on complex interventions with a focus on palliative care. Work on how to manage missing data resulted in specific guidance which has been developed through Marie Curie and is ongoing. Gate keeping practices by staff and relatives in hospices can prevent patients being asked to join research studies which can lead to issues in recruitment. This work formed part of a report commissioned by Help the Hospices looking at the role of research in hospices resulting in the provocative title - Can Hospices afford NOT to be involved in research?
Current Teaching
I am a Professor and Co-Director in the International Observatory on End of Life Care within the Faculty of Health and Medicine. I teach on the different Blended Learning PhDs on systematic reviews and co-edited a book specifically to guide post graduate students Aveyard, H., Payne, S. A., & Preston, N. J. (2016). A post-graduate's guide to doing a literature review in health and social care. Oxford University Press. I have a number of PhD students through the PhD in Palliative Care blended learning course plus traditional PhD students too. I also teach on the undergraduate biological and life sciences where I am the module leader for BIOL 134 Biomedicine and Society.
Additional Information
I am the Director of Post Graduate Studies for the Division of Health Research.
I am involved in the local Specialist Palliative Care network which is a collaboration between clinicians and academics.
I help facilitate the Lancaster University Research Partner forum. This is a user group who help develop research ideas and give feedback to researchers about their research proposals. We have carried out an evaluation of their role.
I review for a number of grant bodies including the Wellcome Trust, National Institute of Health Research and TENOVUS. I am a section editor for BMC Palliative Care and reviewer for a large number of journals.
PhD Supervision Interests
Palliative and end of life care.
Horizon Europe: Pal-CYCLES: PALliative Care Yields Cancer welLbEing Support
01/09/2022 → 31/08/2027
Research
Developing palliative and end-of-life care research partnerships and capacity in the North West Coast of England
01/01/2022 → 30/06/2023
Research
IAA: Skilling up healthcare professionals to help people in East Lancashire to die in their preferred place of care
01/05/2021 → 20/04/2022
Research
DSI : Covid : Impact of Covid-19 pandemic on care home pathways, outcomes and safety of care
20/08/2020 → 19/08/2021
Research
Necessary discussions: Advance care planning for nursing homes in a COVID-19 outbreak
09/06/2020 → 08/09/2021
Research
Better Care Partnership
01/05/2020 → 31/03/2023
Research
Better Care Partnership
01/05/2020 → 31/03/2023
Research
Rapid evaluation of the COVID-19 pandemic response by palliative and end of life care: national delivery, workforce and symptom management (CovPall)
20/04/2020 → 19/04/2021
Research
Revision of the European Association for Palliative Care Recommended Norms and Standards in Palliative Care for Europe: a Delphi study
01/02/2020 → 31/01/2021
Research
Scaling up the Family Carer Decision Support Intervention: A multi-site implementation evaluation
01/09/2019 → 28/02/2022
Research
Scaling up the Family Carer Decision Support Intervention: A transnational effectiveness-implementation evaluation
01/04/2019 → 31/03/2022
Research
The use of proportional palliative sedation for the relief of refractory symptoms: an international multicenter study
01/01/2019 → 31/12/2023
Research
MOOC Palliative Care: Making it Work
02/07/2018 → 28/07/2018
Other
Tender: To evaluate the Age UK End of Life Pathfinder
09/10/2017 → 31/03/2019
Research
The Namaste Care intervention to improve the quality of dying for people with advanced dementia living in care homes: A realist review and feasibility study for a cluster randomised controlled trial
01/12/2016 → 31/03/2019
Research
Evaluation End of Life EoL Social Action Fund
06/11/2014 → 30/06/2016
Research
ACTION: A multi-centre cluster randomised controlled trial of advance care planning - an innovative Palliative Care Intervention to Improve Quality of Life in Oncology (European Union FP7)
01/12/2013 → 31/12/2017
Other
FP7:ACTION: Advanced Care Planning - an Innovative Palliative Care Intervention to Improve Quality of Life in Oncology
01/12/2013 → 31/05/2019
Research
SUPPORTED: The development of an abdominal support binder for the management of ascites
08/07/2013 → …
Research
Patient-centered integrated palliative care pathways in advanced cancer and chronic disease
01/11/2012 → 31/10/2016
Research
Enhancing integration of cancer and palliative care hospital services to meet the palliative care needs of patients with cancer
01/01/1900 → …
Other
Horizon Europe: Stepped wedge trial of a palliative care intervention for patients with COPD
01/01/1900 → …
Research
The use of the Western palliative model in managing patients in resource-poor settings; the challenges and way forward for Ghana.
01/01/1900 → …
Other
On my terms - a film about assisted dying
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar
International Research Networking and Engagement (Ghana)
Types of External academic engagement - Hosting an academic visitor
Grief, loss and place - ESRC Festival of Social Science
Festival/Exhibition/Concert
On my terms - A film about assisted dying
Festival/Exhibition/Concert
What does the data tell us about the impact of COVID in Care Homes
Invited talk
Research during COVID
Invited talk
Book launch of Post Graduates Guide to Literature Reviews 2nd edition
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar
Research during COVID
Invited talk
How intensive do I want my care to be?
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar
- International Observatory on End of Life Care