Clinical components and associated behavioural aspects of a complex healthcare intervention: Multi-methods study of selective decontamination of the digestive tract in critical care
Abstract:Francis, J. (2013). Clinical components and associated behavioural aspects of a complex healthcare intervention: Multi-methods study of selective decontamination of the digestive tract in critical care. Australian Critical Care, 26(4), pp. 173-179. doi: 10.1016/j.aucc.2013.04.002 This is the accepted version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version.
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Authors' contributionsJJF and BHC designed the study. ARB and ACG assisted with recruitment of part… Show more
“…Beliefs about Consequences was the most populous domain. “SDD increases antibiotic resistance”, “SDD reduces Ventilator Associated Pneumonia” and “SDD benefits the patients to whom it is delivered” were the most frequently mentioned beliefs, illustrating the problematic balance between potential harms and benefits.Study outputs Cuthbertson et al [75, 76]; Dombrowski et al [77]; Francis et al [78]; Duncan et al [79]; Marshall et al [80]Fig. 1Flow chart illustrating steps to analyse interview transcripts to select a theoretical basis for designing a questionnaire study
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BackgroundImplementing new practices requires changes in the behaviour of relevant actors, and this is facilitated by understanding of the determinants of current and desired behaviours. The Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) was developed by a collaboration of behavioural scientists and implementation researchers who identified theories relevant to implementation and grouped constructs from these theories into domains. The collaboration aimed to provide a comprehensive, theory-informed approach to identify determinants of behaviour. The first version was published in 2005, and a subsequent version following a validation exercise was published in 2012. This guide offers practical guidance for those who wish to apply the TDF to assess implementation problems and support intervention design. It presents a brief rationale for using a theoretical approach to investigate and address implementation problems, summarises the TDF and its development, and describes how to apply the TDF to achieve implementation objectives. Examples from the implementation research literature are presented to illustrate relevant methods and practical considerations.MethodsResearchers from Canada, the UK and Australia attended a 3-day meeting in December 2012 to build an international collaboration among researchers and decision-makers interested in the advancing use of the TDF. The participants were experienced in using the TDF to assess implementation problems, design interventions, and/or understand change processes. This guide is an output of the meeting and also draws on the authors’ collective experience. Examples from the implementation research literature judged by authors to be representative of specific applications of the TDF are included in this guide.ResultsWe explain and illustrate methods, with a focus on qualitative approaches, for selecting and specifying target behaviours key to implementation, selecting the study design, deciding the sampling strategy, developing study materials, collecting and analysing data, and reporting findings of TDF-based studies. Areas for development include methods for triangulating data, e.g. from interviews, questionnaires and observation and methods for designing interventions based on TDF-based problem analysis.ConclusionsWe offer this guide to the implementation community to assist in the application of the TDF to achieve implementation objectives. Benefits of using the TDF include the provision of a theoretical basis for implementation studies, good coverage of potential reasons for slow diffusion of evidence into practice and a method for progressing from theory-based investigation to intervention.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13012-017-0605-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
“…Beliefs about Consequences was the most populous domain. “SDD increases antibiotic resistance”, “SDD reduces Ventilator Associated Pneumonia” and “SDD benefits the patients to whom it is delivered” were the most frequently mentioned beliefs, illustrating the problematic balance between potential harms and benefits.Study outputs Cuthbertson et al [75, 76]; Dombrowski et al [77]; Francis et al [78]; Duncan et al [79]; Marshall et al [80]Fig. 1Flow chart illustrating steps to analyse interview transcripts to select a theoretical basis for designing a questionnaire study
…”
BackgroundImplementing new practices requires changes in the behaviour of relevant actors, and this is facilitated by understanding of the determinants of current and desired behaviours. The Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) was developed by a collaboration of behavioural scientists and implementation researchers who identified theories relevant to implementation and grouped constructs from these theories into domains. The collaboration aimed to provide a comprehensive, theory-informed approach to identify determinants of behaviour. The first version was published in 2005, and a subsequent version following a validation exercise was published in 2012. This guide offers practical guidance for those who wish to apply the TDF to assess implementation problems and support intervention design. It presents a brief rationale for using a theoretical approach to investigate and address implementation problems, summarises the TDF and its development, and describes how to apply the TDF to achieve implementation objectives. Examples from the implementation research literature are presented to illustrate relevant methods and practical considerations.MethodsResearchers from Canada, the UK and Australia attended a 3-day meeting in December 2012 to build an international collaboration among researchers and decision-makers interested in the advancing use of the TDF. The participants were experienced in using the TDF to assess implementation problems, design interventions, and/or understand change processes. This guide is an output of the meeting and also draws on the authors’ collective experience. Examples from the implementation research literature judged by authors to be representative of specific applications of the TDF are included in this guide.ResultsWe explain and illustrate methods, with a focus on qualitative approaches, for selecting and specifying target behaviours key to implementation, selecting the study design, deciding the sampling strategy, developing study materials, collecting and analysing data, and reporting findings of TDF-based studies. Areas for development include methods for triangulating data, e.g. from interviews, questionnaires and observation and methods for designing interventions based on TDF-based problem analysis.ConclusionsWe offer this guide to the implementation community to assist in the application of the TDF to achieve implementation objectives. Benefits of using the TDF include the provision of a theoretical basis for implementation studies, good coverage of potential reasons for slow diffusion of evidence into practice and a method for progressing from theory-based investigation to intervention.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13012-017-0605-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
“…Few participants delivered SDD in their practice and were therefore not ideally placed to make these assessments. Interviews with clinical staff in centres delivering SDD provided a similar perspective [ 25 ]. These results indicate the need for new research to address the ongoing uncertainties with the evidence base, followed by high-quality translation research if future studies suggest benefit without harmful effects on antibiotic resistance patterns.…”
IntroductionSelective decontamination of the digestive tract (SDD) is a prophylactic antibiotic regimen that is not widely used in practice. We aimed to describe the opinions of key ‘stakeholders’ about the validity of the existing evidence base, likely consequences of implementation, relative importance of their opinions in influencing overall practice, likely barriers to implementation and perceptions of the requirement for further research to inform the decision about whether to embark on a further large randomised controlled trial.MethodsThis was a Delphi study informed by comprehensive framework of possible determinants of health professionals’ behaviour to study Critical Care practice in four countries. There were four key stakeholder participant groups including ICU physicians, pharmacists, clinical leads, and clinical microbiologists/ infectious disease physicians. Round one comprised participant interviews and Rounds two and three were online questionnaires using Delphi method.ResultsIn this study, 141 participants were recruited of whom 82% were retained. Participants rated themselves as knowledgeable about SDD. Antibiotic resistance was identified as the most important issue. SDD was seen as a low clinical priority but few participants reported strong opposition. There was moderate agreement that research to date has not adequately addressed concerns about antibiotic resistance and lacks generalizability. Participants indicated equipoise with regard to benefits and harms of SDD, and indicated strong support for a further randomised trial.ConclusionsClinicians have clinical equipoise about the effectiveness of SDD. Future research requires longer follow up to assess antibiotic resistance as well as greater validity/generalizability to provide definitive answers on the effectiveness of decontamination and effects on antibiotic resistance. SDD was regarded as not being a high clinical priority, which may limit future trial participation. These results have identified that further large randomised controlled trial of SDD in critical care is both warranted and appropriate.
“…Clinical trials often require healthcare providers to change their behaviours to deliver the experimental technology or therapy being evaluated. Failure to change provider behaviour could result in patients failing to receive the experimental treatment, undermining the internal validity of the trial [ 1 , 2 ]. Prior to implementing some types of treatment, there is an opportunity for trialists to use insights from behavioural science to understand and address anticipatable barriers to changes in routine care [ 3 – 5 ].…”
BackgroundImplementing the treatment arm of a clinical trial often requires changes to healthcare practices. Barriers to such changes may undermine the delivery of the treatment making it more likely that the trial will demonstrate no treatment effect. The ‘Major outcomes with personalized dialysate temperature’ (MyTEMP) is a cluster-randomised trial to be conducted in 84 haemodialysis centres across Ontario, Canada to investigate whether there is a difference in major outcomes with an individualized dialysis temperature (IDT) of 0.5 °C below a patient’s body temperature measured at the beginning of each haemodialysis session, compared to a standard dialysis temperature of 36.5 °C. To inform how to deploy the IDT across many haemodialysis centres, we assessed haemodialysis physicians’ and nurses’ perceived barriers and enablers to IDT use.MethodsWe developed two topic guides using the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) to assess perceived barriers and enablers to IDT ordering and IDT setting (physician and nurse behaviours, respectively). We recruited a purposive sample of haemodialysis physicians and nurses from across Ontario and conducted in-person or telephone interviews. We used directed content analysis to double-code transcribed utterances into TDF domains, and inductive thematic analysis to develop themes.ResultsWe interviewed nine physicians and nine nurses from 11 Ontario haemodialysis centres. We identified seven themes of potential barriers and facilitators to implementing IDTs: (1) awareness of clinical guidelines and how IDT fits with local policies (knowledge; goals), (2) benefits and motivation to use IDT (beliefs about consequences; optimism; reinforcement; intention; goals), (3) alignment of IDTs with usual practice and roles (social/professional role and identity; nature of the behaviour; beliefs about capabilities), (4) thermometer availability/accuracy and dialysis machine characteristics (environmental context and resources), (5) impact on workload (beliefs about consequences; beliefs about capabilities), (6) patient comfort (behavioural regulation; beliefs about consequences; emotion), and (7) forgetting to prescribe or set IDT (memory, attention, decision making processes; emotion).ConclusionsThere are anticipatable barriers to changing healthcare professionals’ behaviours to effectively deliver an intervention within a randomised clinical trial. A behaviour change framework can help to systematically identify such barriers to inform better delivery and evaluation of the treatment, therefore potentially increasing the fidelity of the intervention to increase the internal validity of the trial. These findings will be used to optimise the delivery of IDT in the MyTEMP trial and demonstrate how this approach can be used to plan intervention delivery in other clinical trials.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT02628366. Registered November 16 2015.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13063-017-1965-9) contains supplementary material, which is a...
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