Older people in accident and emergency: the use of action research to explore the interface between services in an acute hospital

This article reports on an ongoing action research study into the organisation of care for older people in a United Kingdom accident and emergency (A&E) department. The study is located at the interface between A&E and the in-patient services for elderly people (SEP) wards, and aims to work between these two services to seek improvements for change to the care of older people in A&E. Preliminary data are used in the article to explore three claims about the value of action research: action research enables an understanding of the issues from the perspectives of the different participants; action research enables work to take place that explicitly takes account of the different perspectives; and action research helps to explain the reasons for resistance to change. The analysis is used to highlight the value that action research may have in bridging gaps between services in an acute hospital.