The Potential Impact of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill on the Professional Identity of Palliative Care Staff

The current study aims to investigate the potential impact of the proposed Assisted Dying (Terminally Ill Adults (2024) Bill on Palliative care workers. Palliative care professionals across the Humber Health Partnership will be interviewed using semi-structured interview questions, with the intention of exploring the way they make sense of the potential implementation of the bill, particularly in relation to their professional identity. The research will be carried out in line with guidance for Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (Smith, Flowers & Larkin, 2021), a research methodology which aims to explore how people make sense of their experience, often in response to a particular event.

It is hoped that the study will contribute to the ongoing discussions regarding how the bill should be implemented and offer potential insights into ways that hospitals may best support staff during the passing of the bill into law. The study will be sponsored by Hull University Teaching Hospitals Trust (HUTH).