The following flow through a European PROM study is as follows.

Showing Interest

  1. A European chaplain with access to patients becomes interested in engaging in research for that country.
  2. That chaplain should please contact ERICH at
  3. We will record your interest and introduce you to the study in more detail, pointing you at first to the online resource that details the processes involved
  4. Then we will discuss your potential involvement.

If you decide to proceed, we will support and guide you through the study. This essentially has three phases

  1. Getting permission to do the study
  2. Gathering data
  3. Disseminating results

Getting permission in your own healthcare facility

Because this is a research study, your local ethics review board will need to authorise permissions for you to conduct the study in your country. This remains the case even where other countries have successfully gained permissions. For example, because Belgium is hosting the research through ERICH, the main ethics application has been through Leuven ethics board. This approval only applies to Belgium. However, the fact that approval has been achieved in the host organisation should hopefully smooth the process through in other countries. Regardless, ERICH will help you with these processes.

Gathering data

The study involves sending out, collecting and collating information using the following documents:

  1. The PROM (Patient Reported Outcome Measure of Spiritual Care delivered by Chaplain)
  2. EQ5D (a generic health measure used all over the world ( )
  3. Participant Information sheet
  4. Consent form
  5. Chaplain’s referral record (this is a short written account of the visit with a patient. It will be matched up with the patient’s survey when it’s returned)

However, this can all be managed online. Novi surveys offer a secure database hosted by Edinburgh Napier University. All questionnaires can now be completed safely there.

The process is as follows:

  1. Patient sees a chaplain (for any reason). The only essential factor for inclusion in the study is that the chaplain has their name and address, or email.
  1. Once the chaplain has finished a visit, or helped a patient resolve a particular issue over a series of visits, they (or an assigned administrator) send the patient either:

a) An email inviting them to click the link that will take them to an online version of the documents, or;

b) A letter containing all the documents listed above plus a stamped addressed envelope for their return to KU Leuven where they will be centrally collated and analysed

  1. The chaplain/administrator then completes and uploads their referral record to the survey link, making sure that the details of the patient are correct such that the returned survey can be matched with the correct referral record.

This process continues until the relevant number of people have been recruited to the study in that particular country.

Dissemination

Once all data have been input from every participating country the data will be analysed by the research lead at ERICH (Austyn). All champions at this stage will be very welcome to be involved as much or as little as they wish. There is a great opportunity here to hone skills in statistics ranging from generating descriptives and data visualisation though to advanced psychometrics. The key point is that colleagues are welcome do as much as they are comfortable with.

To be absolutely clear, ALL champions will be cited in EVERY publication using their data. There will be excellent opportunities to focus specifically on the data each champion has collected, and we would hope that local champions will lead on these, but ERICH will support you all the way to disseminate and analyse your personal results.