Professor Catherine Walshe
ProfessorResearch Overview
My research expertise is in palliative and end of life care. I am a nurse by background. I have two main research interests: the way that palliative care is provided especially within primary and community care settings; and the experience of symptoms at the end of life. Current or recent projects: the experiences of those receiving immunotherapy (2022-25), establishing a palliative care research network across NWC England (2021-25), the NIHR funded Palliative and End of Life Care Policy Research Unit (2024-2026), and Horizon Europe funded projects I-CLEAR (2024-2028) and In-Touch (2024-2028) . I am also interested in research methods and dissemination, and am editor in chief of the journal 'Palliative Medicine'.
Current Research
Current and recent projects include:
- Horizon Europe funded ICLEAR exploring a new intervention for those with advanced COPD with Prof Nancy Preston, led by colleagues from VUB in Belgium, and with a pan-European Consortia.
- Horizon Europe funded In-Touch exploring care for those with advanced dementia with Prof Nancy Preston and led from colleagues at University College Cork, with a pan-European consortia.
- The NIHR funded Palliative and End of Life Care Policy Research Unit with with Prof Nancy Preston and led by colleagues from King's College London and Hull/York Medical School.
- Developing a palliative care network across NWC England funded by NIHR with colleagues from Universities and clinical organisations across North West Coast.
- Exploring the experience of receiving immunotherapy for those with advanced cancer (NWCR) led by Prof Sarah Brearley
- CovPall: Understanding the response of specialist palliative care services to COVID-19 with Prof Nancy Preston and led by colleagues from King's College, London.
- mySUPPORT: implementing a comfort care booklet for people with dementia in nursing care homes (funded by Alzheimer's Society) with Prof Nancy Preston and led by colleagues from Queens University, Belfast.
- I also supervise a number of PhD students following a traditional route PhD and on the PhD in Palliative Care programme.
Research Interests
Providing excellent and appropriate care at the end of life is critically important not only to those with life-limiting illness, but also to informal and professional carers. This is a major issue, as it is estimated that around 63% of those who die will require palliative care at some stage during their illness. Research into all aspects of palliative care provision is vitally important, to provide appropriate evidence to support care decisions. Whilst there has been research in this field for a number of years now, there are still many unanswered questions as the evidence base remains small, possibly as a result of the poor funding in this area, and the need to develop research capacity. Within the International Observatory on End of Life Care we focus on a number of different areas of research which contribute to developing this evidence base: researching the needs of older people, symptom management, evaluating service models, and our overarching theme of developing research methods to investigate end of life care.
Current Teaching
I teach on our internationally recognised PhD in Palliative Care programme. You can see information here: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/health-and-medicine/research/ioelc/. I am the admissions tutor for the programme, and am always happy for people to contact me to discuss the programme.
Additional Information
I am a Professor of Palliative Care and Co-Director of the International Observatory on End of Life Care, part of the Division of Health Research. I am also Editor in Chief of the journal ‘Palliative Medicine’. This is one of the premier journals in the field, and is an international multi-disciplinary journal. Palliative Medicine is the research journal of the European Association of Palliative Care. I am a fellow of the Queens Institute of Community Nursing. I became an academic following a clinical career as a palliative care nurse, primarily in community-based settings.
PhD Supervision Interests
I am interested in supervising students in the areas of palliative and supportive care, with a particular interest in primary care, models of palliative care provision, care homes and volunteers. I am happy to support applications for externally funded fellowships.
-
NIHR NW RRDN Strategic Funding Award 2025-2026
01/06/2025 → 30/06/2026
Research
-
Empowering a Meaningful Life for All Dementia Network Plus (EMPOWER)
01/04/2024 → 31/03/2028
Research
-
Horizon Europe : In-Touch: Implementation of a palliative care iNtervention To imprOve QUality of people with advanced dementia in Care Homes
01/01/2024 → 31/12/2028
Research
-
Horizon Europe: Stepped wedge trial of a palliative care intervention for patients with COPD
01/01/2024 → 31/12/2028
Research
-
NIHR Policy Research Unit for Palliative and End of Life Care
01/01/2024 → 31/12/2026
Research
-
NIHR Policy Research Unit for Palliative and End of Life Care
01/01/2024 → 31/12/2026
Research
-
NIHR Clinical Research Network North West Coast (CRN NWC) Funding Award 2023/24
01/07/2023 → 31/03/2024
Research
-
NIHR Clinical Research Network North West Coast (CRN NWC) Strategic Funding Award 2023/24
01/07/2023 → 31/03/2024
Research
-
NIHR Clinical Research Network North West Coast (NIHR CRN NWC) Funding Award 2024/5 (Apr-Sep24)
01/07/2023 → 30/09/2024
Research
-
NIHR Clinical Research Network North West Coast (NIHR CRN NWC) Strategic Funding Award 2024/5 (Apr-Sep24)
01/07/2023 → 30/09/2024
Research
-
Mapping illness trajectories for people with advanced cancer receiving immunotherapy treatment: a mixed methods study to identify something about need and health service input?
01/04/2022 → 30/06/2026
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
-
CRN: Palliative and End of Life Care Research Partnerships
01/07/2021 → 31/08/2021
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
-
NIHR ARC NWC - LCCG Cash Match
01/10/2019 → 31/03/2025
Research
-
NIHR Applied Research Collaboration North West Coast
01/10/2019 → 31/03/2026
Research
-
Manchester Macmillan Supportive and Palliative Care Programme
29/05/2019 → 30/06/2021
Research
-
Scaling up the Family Carer Decision Support Intervention: A transnational effectiveness-implementation evaluation
01/04/2019 → 31/03/2022
Research
-
To evaluate the Macmillan 7-day Specialist Palliative Care Advice and Assessment Programme, Greater Manchester
30/08/2018 → 07/09/2020
Research
-
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
-
Using participatory action research to advance hospice care
01/11/2016 → 31/03/2019
Research
-
Peer support to maintain psychological wellbeing in people with advanced cancer: A feasibility study for a Randomised Controlled Trial.
05/10/2015 → 04/10/2018
Research
-
Evaluation End of Life EoL Social Action Fund
06/11/2014 → 30/06/2016
Research
-
Immunotherapy and Palliative Care Trajectories (IMPACT): a mixed methods study mapping illness trajectories for people with advanced cancer receiving immunotherapy treatment to identify palliative care need.
01/01/1900 → …
Research
Stakeholder engagement to develop palliative care in intensive care: A theory of change approach
Invited talk
Process evaluations and feasibility studies in trials of complex palliative care interventions
Invited talk
Empowering Better End-of-Life Dementia Care Webinar
Oral presentation
Decolonising Palliative Care: Learning from Research Beyond the Global West
Types of Public engagement and outreach - Festival/Exhibition
Experiences of living and dying with Lewy body dementia: a longitudinal narrative study.
Oral presentation
Specialist Palliative Care Professionals' Experiences of Moral Distress during COVID-19: A Multiple Qualitative Case Study
Oral presentation
The role of palliative care in the public health response to Covid-19
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar
International Mental Health Nursing Research Conference
Participation in workshop, seminar, course
NIHR HS & DR Funding Panel (External organisation)
Membership of committee
Palliative Medicine (Journal)
Editorial activity
- International Observatory on End of Life Care