Promoting psychosocial well-being following a stroke: Developing a theoretically and empirically sound complex intervention

Touch massage: a pilot study of a complex intervention

“…The MRC framework provides a constructive guideline (Craig et al, 2008) for the development of complex intervention studies such as TM, as reported in other nursing intervention studies (Maindal et al, 2010;Kirkevold et al, 2012). In our project it was important to understand the mechanisms that could explain observed responses during and after TM in order to select outcome parameters more accurately and explain results more easily.…”

Optimisation of complex health interventions prior to a randomised controlled trial: a scoping review of strategies used

“…The intervention did not move to the full-scale RCTEttema et al 2014 [24]NetherlandsThe Prevention of Decline in Older Cardiac Surgery Patients (PREDOCS) programme, a nursing intervention to prepare frail older patients for cardiac surgeryMRC framework 2008Delineate intervention components, identify how components could be interrelated and identify how components relate to the outcomesComparison of evidence on effective interventions derived from the systematic review with the valuable theoretical understanding of the likely process of change obtain from the analytical study; survey study amongst nurses ( n  = 250), semi-structured interviews with patientsFindings led to the development of the intervention that was then tested for face validityFarquhar et al 2011 [34]UKPalliative Breathlessness Intervention Service (BIS) in patients with intractable dyspnoeaMRC framework 2000 and 2008Explore participants’ experience of using the intervention and clinicians’ experience of referring patients to the serviceInterviews with patients and patients’ relatives ( n  = 10), clinicians ( n  = 4) who had use the drafted serviceThe intervention was remodelled on the basis of the findings and then pilotedBooth et al 2006[52]Grant et al 2014 [48]UKData-driven quality improvement in primary care (DQIP) intervention to improve prescribing safety in primary care Not reported Explore GPs and practice managers’ perception of the value of the specific components of the intervention (education, informatics and financial), their experience of adopting and implementing the intervention into routine practice and to changing prescribing behaviourSemi-structured interviews with GPs and practice managersPractice experiences identified some barriers which facilitated optimising the intervention beyond suggestions in the literature on changing prescribingGray et al 2013 [27]UKThe Football Fans in Training (FFIT) weight loss intervention for adult menMRC framework 2008Gain feedback from participants and coaches on the programme and its deliveryObservations, interviews and focus groups with participants and coaches and questionnaire to participantsThe intervention was refined and then tested in a full-scale RCTHrisos et al 2008 [46]UKTwo behavioural interventions to promote GP management of upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) without prescribing antibioticsIntervention modelling experimentExplore the potential effect of the intervention on proxy outcomes that represent the actual behaviour2 × 2 factorial randomised controlled trial involving 340 GPs. GPs were asked to complete two postal questionnaire surveys which included clinical scenariosFindings encouraged the development of a replicable methodology for the design, evaluation and refinement of interventions prior to service-level RCTsKirkevold et al 2012 [31]…”

“…Interventions were delivered in a variety of settings (e.g. inpatient, outpatient clinics and home-based settings) and targeted a wide range of conditions, such as mental health conditions [28, 30, 35, 40, 47], stroke [31, 36, 39], cancer [29, 32, 33, 37, 42] and other chronic illnesses [25, 34, 38]. Two studies reported on preventive interventions targeting older people [24, 50] and one on a programme to empower patients undergoing gynaecological surgery during the perioperative period [43].…”

“…Several studies employed well-established qualitative methods including interviews or focus groups with providers and recipients or relevant stakeholders [26, 30, 32, 34, 39, 47, 48] and observations and consensus processes including researchers, patients and clinical experts [31]. A number of studies adopted quantitative methods such as fractional factorial experiments [10, 44], economic modelling [33], small uncontrolled pilot studies (with no control group) [25, 29, 38], experimental 2 × 2 randomised controlled trials [45, 46], probability models [49, 50] and evaluation questionnaires [43].…”

Bringing Research Into a Closed and Protected Place

“…The phases of the process evolve in close interaction-expressed in the updated version as development, assessing of feasibility, and evaluation. The framework guides both medical and nursing projects, 3,6,7 and consequently the actual project as well as the structure for this article.…”