Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques

This is the latest updated volume in a well-established series bringing together information from a variety of sources to estimate national unit costs for a wide range of health and social care services. This report consists of tables for more than 130 types of service which, as well as providing the most detailed and comprehensive information possible, also quotes sources and assumptions so users can adapt the information for their own purposes. This year we have included a guest editorial on ‘Big Data’: increasing productivity while reducing costs in health and social care and three short articles on The cost of integrated care; Shared lives – improving understanding of the costs of family-based support and the costs of providing a group intervention to people with dementia and their family carers:SHIELD: RYCT & CSP intervention costs (Remembering Yesterday Caring Today and Carer Support Programme). There are also several new schema providing the costs of: advocacy for people with learning disabilities; a hospice rapid response service; the early years classroom management programme; residential parenting assessments; independent review officers; time banks; dentists and care home costs for people with dementia. The 2014 edition is also available in full, free of charge, at the PSSRU website www.pssru.ac.uk/unit-costs/2014/ as an Acrobat file.

Unit Costs of Health and Social Care 2014

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About the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence - NICE.

Author Ray Pawson presents a devastating critique of the dominant approach to systematic review namely the 'meta-analytic' approach as sponsored by the Cochrane and Campbell collaborations. In its place is commended an approach that he terms 'realist synthesis'. On this vision, the real purpose of systematic review is better to understand program theory, so that policies Author Ray Pawson presents a devastating critique of the dominant approach to systematic review namely the 'meta-analytic' approach as sponsored by the Cochrane and Campbell collaborations. In its place is commended an approach that he terms 'realist synthesis'. On this vision, the real purpose of systematic review is better to understand program theory, so that policies can be properly targeted and developed to counter an ever-changing landscape of social problems. The book will be essential reading for all those who loved (or loathed) the arguments developed in Realistic Evaluation (Sage, 1997). It offers a complete blueprint for research synthesis, supported by detailed illustrations and worked examples from across the policy waterfront.

Evidence-based Policy: A Realist Perspective

Objective To provide researchers with guidance on actions to take during intervention development. Summary of key points Based on a consensus exercise informed by reviews and qualitative interviews, we present key principles and actions for consideration when developing interventions to improve health. These include seeing intervention development as a dynamic iterative process, involving stakeholders, reviewing published research evidence, drawing on existing theories, articulating programme theory, undertaking primary data collection, understanding context, paying attention to future implementation in the real world and designing and refining an intervention using iterative cycles of development with stakeholder input throughout. Conclusion Researchers should consider each action by addressing its relevance to a specific intervention in a specific context, both at the start and throughout the development process.

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Guidance on how to develop complex interventions to improve health and healthcare

Work-life in the balance.

Nurses leaving their jobs and the profession are an issue of international concern, with supply-demand gaps for nurses reported to be widening. There is a large body of existing literature, much of which is already in review form. In order to advance the usefulness of the literature for nurse and human resource managers, we undertook an overview (review of systematic reviews). The aim of the overview was to identify high quality evidence of the determinants and consequences of turnover in adult nursing. Reviews were identified which were published between 1990 and January 2015 in English using electronic databases (the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, MEDLINE, EMBASE, Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts, CINAHL plus and SCOPUS) and forward searching. All stages of the review were conducted in parallel by two reviewers. Reviews were quality appraised using the Assessment of Multiple Systematic Reviews and their findings narratively synthesised. Nine reviews were included. We found that the current evidence is incomplete and has a number of important limitations. However, a body of moderate quality review evidence does exist giving a picture of multiple determinants of turnover in adult nursing, with - at the individual level - nurse stress and dissatisfaction being important factors and -at the organisational level - managerial style and supervisory support factors holding most weight. The consequences of turnover are only described in economic terms, but are considered significant. In making a quality assessment of the review as well as considering the quality of the included primary studies and specificity in the outcomes they measure, the overview found that the evidence is not as definitive as previously presented from individual reviews. Further research is required, of rigorous research design, whether quantitative or qualitative, particularly against the outcome of actual turnover as opposed to intention to leave. PROSPERO Registration 17 March 2015: CRD42015017613
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The determinants and consequences of adult nursing staff turnover: a systematic review of systematic reviews

Recruitment of frail older people to research: lessons learnt through experience



Background. With the emphasis on the need for clinical governance and evidence-based practice in the healthcare industry there is increasing pressure on researchers to provide tangible research evidence of the effectiveness of new treatments, interventions and services. Recruiting an adequate size of sample is an important factor in the success or otherwise of a study to answer the research question. Difficulty in the recruitment of older people to research is widely acknowledged. However, much can be achieved to maximize the success of this process.



Aims of the paper. This paper describes and explores our experience of recruiting frail, older people to research, with particular emphasis on ensuring quality in the process of research related to ethical practice.



Conclusions. Recruitment of frail older people to research can be a complex process in which the awareness and integrity of the researcher is key in upholding the principle of nonexploitation. It is important not to underestimate this difficulty and to ensure that the data collection period is sufficient to recruit adequate numbers. There is a need to continue to develop and refine recruitment skills and strategies to maximize the involvement of frail older people to research while protecting their right to refuse.

Recruitment of frail older people to research: lessons learnt through experience.

Interprofessional teamwork has become an integral feature of healthcare delivery in a wide range of conditions and services in many countries. Many assumptions are made in healthcare literature and policy about how interprofessional teams function and about the outcomes of interprofessional teamwork. Realist synthesis is an approach to reviewing research evidence on complex interventions which seeks to explore these assumptions. It does this by unpacking the mechanisms of an intervention, exploring the contexts which trigger or deactivate them and connecting these contexts and mechanisms to their subsequent outcomes. This is the second in a series of four papers reporting a realist synthesis of interprofessional teamworking. The paper discusses four of the 13 mechanisms identified in the synthesis: collaboration and coordination; pooling of resources; individual learning; and role blurring. These mechanisms together capture the day-to-day functioning of teams and the dependence of that on members' understanding each others' skills and knowledge and learning from them. This synthesis found empirical evidence to support all four mechanisms, which tentatively suggests that collaboration, pooling, learning, and role blurring are all underlying processes of interprofessional teamwork. However, the supporting evidence for individual learning was relatively weak, therefore there may be assumptions made about learning within healthcare literature and policy that are not founded upon strong empirical evidence. There is a need for more robust research on individual learning to further understand its relationship with interprofessional teamworking in healthcare.

Evidence of collaboration, pooling of resources, learning and role blurring in interprofessional healthcare teams: a realist synthesis.

Background Co-production is defined as the voluntary or involuntary involvement of users in the design, management, delivery and/or evaluation of services. Interest in co-production as an intervent ...

https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/7/7/e014650.full.pdf

Ruth Harris

Papers

Work-life in the balance.

The determinants and consequences of adult nursing staff turnover: a systematic review of systematic reviews

Recruitment of frail older people to research: lessons learnt through experience.

Evidence of collaboration, pooling of resources, learning and role blurring in interprofessional healthcare teams: a realist synthesis.

What outcomes are associated with developing and implementing co-produced interventions in acute healthcare settings? : A rapid evidence synthesis