The challenges of rehabilitation and delirium trials in the current NHS landscape: learning from the RecoverED feasibility trial

There is a great need for more high-quality rehabilitation and delirium research and the National Health Service (NHS) should be well placed to deliver such research. This commentary discusses the challenges we faced in delivering a feasibility trial of a rehabilitation intervention aimed at supporting recovery from delirium. We found a number of challenges including identifying therapy teams, delays in study set up, difficulty in identification and recruitment of participants, staff capacity to undertake the research and site selection. As a result of identifying these challenges we propose some recommendations as opportunities to improve the delivery of rehabilitation research in the future. These are: development of research capacity amongst therapy staff; optimising delirium screening to improve patient care and research opportunities; and greater creativity and innovation between funders and researchers to improve recruitment of frail older people with cognitive impairment to research.