Blending Participatory Action Synthesis and Meta-ethnography: An Innovative Approach to Evaluating Complex Community Health Transformation

Reed, Kristin; Carr, Tara F.; Rabbani, Rumana; Chandler, Caroline; Scaccia, Jonathan; Cook, Brittany; Howard, Paul; Ramaswamy, Rohit

doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-99033/v1

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…Details of the ToAST approach are described in Reed et al 17 The approach adapted two qualitative research techniques: meta‐ethnography, a structured seven‐phase method for synthesizing findings from a small number of ethnographic studies to create new interpretations 18 and participatory action synthesis (PAS), 19 a communal synthesis process where the researchers bring their own social, political, and cultural experiences to the table. In the version utilized for SCALE, the “ethnographies” were the patchwork of routinely collected project data that each community brought to the synthesis workgroup, and the objective was to weave this patchwork together into a shared story of a transformation journey.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Developing capacity for learning community systems: Experiences from the 100 Million Healthier Lives SCALE Initiative

Carr

Holly

Reed

et al. 2021

Learning Health Systems

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Introduction This paper explores the capabilities that contribute to community transformation and the common pathways followed by communities in the 100 Million Healthier Lives SCALE (Spreading Community Accelerators through Learning and Evaluation) initiative in their transformation journeys towards a “Culture of Health”. Methods Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), from 2016 to 2020, between 18 to 24 community coalitions nationwide participated in SCALE, the goal of which was to co‐design, implement, test, and scale up a model called the Community of Solutions (COS) Framework, that built community capacity around a set of skills and behaviors to advance culture change and create sustainable improvement in health, well‐being, and equity. We adapted and applied two qualitative research techniques, meta‐ethnography and participatory action synthesis, to evaluate SCALE initiative data. Results Eight concepts emerged that represent the knowledge, capabilities and practices commonly acquired and utilized across the communities. Overall, these concepts emphasize individual and team leadership, quality improvement skills, an intentional focus on equity, and partnerships for spread and sustainment. Concepts were linked into lines of arguments which were unique storylines explaining the transformation pathways. Three stories of the transformation process emerged from the data. Causal Loop Diagrams (CLDs) were created to represent non‐linear system relationships and visually capture some of the most important dynamics of the process of transformation. Even with vast heterogeneity among the SCALE communities and the diversity of activities that the communities undertook, our analysis showed there were a few basic principles that undergirded the process of building capability for transformation. Conclusions The knowledge from our findings should be useful to expand further research and practice in community learning systems.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%