About

About

The I-SAMPLE project was an NIHR-funded research study that aimed to create a bundle of interventions to optimise blood culture sampling for patients with suspected severe infection in acute care in England. Blood culture sampling is important for clinical decision making so that patients can receive the best infection specific antibiotic at the earliest stage of their treatment, and to reduce antibiotic overuse. Up to half of hospital patients do not have blood samples taken when antibiotics are started.

The I-SAMPLE project was conducted in 3 NHS Trusts in England. The project started in January 2024 and ended in September 2026.

The study had several components:

This research project developed through:

Part 1 a
Analysis of routine hospital data

Quantitative analysis of routine hospital data from three NHS trusts.
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Part 1 b
Survey of healthcare professionals

A national survey of health professionals’ attitudes, beliefs and experiences of blood sampling.
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Part 1 c
An ethnographic study of blood sampling practice

An in-depth ethnographic study in three NHS trusts to identify the organisational, social and behavioural influences on reliability of blood sampling.
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Part 2
Embedded co-design and

evaluation of feasibility of interventions

We worked with patients and public (PPIE) and expert advisory group meetings, and produced diverse outputs including recommendations for policy, presentations to stakeholders, academic papers, video outputs to share findings with staff, patients and the public.
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9 workshops

Co-design

2 evaluation workshops

Acceptability and feasibility

Meetings

PPIE and expert advisory
group meetings

Part 1 a Analysis of routine hospital data

Part 1 b Survey of healthcare professionals

Part 1 c An ethnographic study of blood sampling practice

Part 2 Embedded co-design and