vetenskapsrådets kartläggning, utvärdering och rekommendationer ...

2 KARTLÄGGNING OCH UTVÄRDERING AV SVENSK VÅRDFORSKNING – HUVUDRAPPORT OCH UNDERLAG FÖR VETENSKAPSRÅDETS REKOMMENDATIONER
intervention studies. The palliative care research group is reported as comprising
about 20 senior researchers and doctoral students. The palliative care
group has instigated a network of palliative care researchers across other
universities in Sweden. Care of the old is another research focus, mainly in
the area of dementia care and the development of identity-promoting approaches
on the part of the caregivers. Health care ethics is a further topic
for research, seeking to: 1) give tools for reflection on ethical questions in
health care, 2) contribute to theory development in the area of health care
ethics and 3) to increase knowledge about the importance of views of life
for health care. Major emphases have been: the study of companion animals
and their therapeutic impact (also described in the care of the old theme).
Issues relating to dignity in older age are reported in the text as being related
to palliative care, although the publications in this area are categorized
under health care ethics.
Quality of the research
The strongest programme of work is in palliative care, with eleven PhD
completions since 2005 and 120 peer review articles and 22 book chapters
reported in the evaluation report text. It is clear that the infrastructure is in
place for capacity building and career progression through Masters’ preparation
to PhD and early career research support. Four of the eleven doctoral
dissertations in the palliative care theme are related to the one large project
funded by a foundation: ‘The importance of home as the last place of care’. This
has provided the basis for work now ongoing on dignity, identity and relational
care, extending into the other themes. Core funding has been gained
for a Centre of Palliative Care research which gives the opportunity to recruit
to new Professorial positions (palliative care/ palliative medicine) and
doctoral positions. This provides the platform to consolidate and expand a
developing programme of research to a greater level of international reputation;
a clearly stated intention.
A lot of detail is provided about individual projects, which makes it difficult
to discern what have been the key impacts of the research outcomes,
although some specific examples are provided of inputs into guidelines and
education. The programme of work has international standing with regard
to the research on dignity among older people led by Nordenfelt, based on
EU funding and a highly cited/ respected research based book. In other
areas, research has excellent national standing and developing international
recognition. Good quality publications are reported in care of the old and in
palliative care, but publications could be more ambitiously targeted in the
future. For example, in palliative care, some of the key specialist journals are
not featured (for example: Palliative Medicine, Journal of Pain and Symp-
VETENSKAPSRÅDETS KARTLÄGGNING, UTVÄRDERING OCH REKOMMENDATIONER ANGÅENDE SVENSK VÅRDFORSKNING 33