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

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. Some European Studies I have been involved in explore this:

1. InSup-C - how is palliative care integrated

2. Pal-cycles - how can we improve integration of palliative care into cancer services

3. EU-COPD - how can we improve integration of palliative care into respiratory services for people with COPD

4. In-Touch - Improving care of people with advanced dementia in care homes

I am interested in how people make decisions at the end of life related to advance care planning, sedation and assisted dying.

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 2nd Edition Aveyard, H., Payne, S. A., & Preston, N. J. (2021). A post-graduate's guide to doing a literature review in health and social care. Oxford University Press. Also AveyardH, Preston N and FArquhar M (2022 How to reas and critique research: a guide for nurses and healthcare students SAGE. I coauthored the book Walshe C, Preston N& Johnston B (2018) Palliative Care Nursing: Prinicples for Evidence for Practice. I have a number of PhD students through the PhD in Palliative Care blended learning course plus traditional PhD students too.

Additional Information

I am the Associate Dean for Research in the Faculty of Health and Medicine.

I am part of the NIHR/Department for Health and Social Care Policy Research Unit for Palliative Care.

My interest in assisted dying has led to presenting evidence to committees in the British and Irish Parliaments as well as various media outlets.

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.