Mission (im)possible: Engaging care homes, staff and residents in research studies

Abstract

Objectives: With increasing age the risk of institutionalization increases. To address the problem of underrepresentation of care homes and their residents in future research studies, we aimed to explore care home staff members' thoughts on barriers, challenges, facilitators and key aspects of engaging in research studies. Methods: Five staff members from four care homes in Glasgow and Barcelona were interviewed. Transcription of the interviews was completed verbatim and an inductive thematic analysis was conducted to understand the difficulties and challenges they perceive for engaging in research studies. Results: Three themes emerged that encapsulated the staff members' perspectives. 'Too much to deal with' included two subthemes; 'interested but with support' encapsulated four subthemes; and 'on the residents' terms' highlighted three subthemes. Staff members showed interest in engaging in research studies if a clear management support accompanied by a whole team approach was evident. The involvement of the resident's relatives was seen as essential if residents were to be supported to be engaged. Conclusions: Despite the small sample size, the perspectives of staff members, irrespective of country, provided valuable insights for informing researchers on best approaches to maximize care home and resident engagement in research.

A Pilot Randomised Clinical Trial of a Novel Approach to Reduce Sedentary Behaviour in Care Home Residents: Feasibility and Preliminary Effects of the GET READY Study

“…Even though the GR intervention was shown to be feasible and highly acceptable, we found several challenges engaging care homes in the research process. To understand the care home staff champions' thoughts on barriers, challenges, facilitators, and key aspects of engaging in research studies, five interviews were performed and the results have been published elsewhere [36]. Even though almost 50% of the residents that were invited by the staff champions participated, which might seem a quite high percentage, the staff champions probably invited the residents most likely to accept and didn't try to invite residents that do not tend to engage in proposed activities, similar to the case described as the inverse-care law [51].…”

“…The development of alternative approaches based on end-users' preferences and which implement behavioural change concepts have been repeatedly requested to enhance sustainable changes [34,35]. A recent study reported that, according to care home staff members, residents like to be involved in most decision-making regarding the activities they are offered, and the involvement of the resident's close relatives was seen as essential if residents were to be supported to be engaged [36]. Also, a recent systematic review showed that care-home residents could be successfully involved in participatory research [37].…”

Teaming up to traverse loneliness: a co-creative journey toward a home care work model for supporting social participation among older adults

“…In this shift, the group’s atmosphere changed visibly from strongly enthusiastic to more muted engagement, and two participants in this group also decided to end their participation before the end of the round. Leadership involvement and support have been identified as crucial for engagement and change when care workers participate in research, both by current participants (Table 1 ) and in other research [ 45 ]. The possibility of increasing manager involvement was repeatedly discussed among researchers during the co-creation process, and we held verification meetings with the managers before and after each round.…”

Research engagement among UK care home staff: a reflection

“…Care homes are under-represented in research (NHS Research Scotland, 2021), with Law (2016) noting that over ten years, only 7 per cent of care homes across Scotland had engaged in research. This suggests that a culture of research is not fully embedded within care homes and may help to explain why some care home staff are unfamiliar with (Giné-Garriga et al, 2020) and/or hesitant about research (Goodman et al, 2011). Hesitancy towards research engagement among care home staff is likely to have implications for practice, as research has been shown to improve both care (Hanney et al, 2013) and care outcomes (Austin, 2021).…”