A framework for participatory work environment interventions in home care – success factors and some challenges
Persson, Johanna LU ; Johansson, Gerd LU ; Arvidsson, Inger LU ; Östlund, Britt ; Holgersson, Charlotte ; Persson, Roger LU
and Rydenfält, Christofer
LU
(2022)
In BMC Health Services Research
22.
- Abstract
- Background
Home care is beset with work environment issues and high staff turnover, while research concerned with interventions to improve the work environment is sparse. Few of the existing interventions apply a participative approach, despite this being associated with more positive outcomes and sustainable change. This paper presents a framework, rooted in action research and action learning, for participatory work environment interventions in home care, and demonstrates how this framework has been implemented in four Swedish home care organizations.
Methods
The framework has three phases (pre-intervention, intervention planning and intervention implementation) and consists of cycles of action and reflection in three... (More) - Background
Home care is beset with work environment issues and high staff turnover, while research concerned with interventions to improve the work environment is sparse. Few of the existing interventions apply a participative approach, despite this being associated with more positive outcomes and sustainable change. This paper presents a framework, rooted in action research and action learning, for participatory work environment interventions in home care, and demonstrates how this framework has been implemented in four Swedish home care organizations.
Methods
The framework has three phases (pre-intervention, intervention planning and intervention implementation) and consists of cycles of action and reflection in three constellations: a group of researchers, a reference group with labour market organization representatives and home care managers, and intervention work groups in the home care organizations. The work was documented and analysed with focus on the realization of the framework and challenges that were met on the way. The interventions were evaluated using a pre-/post-test questionnaire design.
Results
Parts of the framework were successfully implemented. The pre-intervention phase and the intervention planning phase, with intervention work groups, worked well. All four groups identified one intervention relevant to their own context. However, only two of the proposed interventions were fully implemented and evaluated. The high staff and management turnover, and the high rate of organizational changes made it impossible to evaluate the interventions statistically. Yet, data from open-ended questions in the post questionnaire showed that the two implemented interventions were perceived as successful.
Conclusions
The participatory framework, presented in this paper, seems promising for work environment interventions in home care. The framework was designed to reduce the risk of known disturbances affecting the process in unstable organizations. Despite this, it proved challenging to execute the framework, and especially the interventions, due to changes happening at high speed. In the two cases where organizational changes were not dominating, the interventions were implemented successfully. While the prerequisites for participation and successful implementation could be improved somewhat, the main issue, the instability of the organizational context, is hard for researchers or the individual home care units to tackle alone. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/c43c5bec-528b-4b47-b93b-38103c2b0ec1
- author
- Persson, Johanna
LU
; Johansson, Gerd
LU
; Arvidsson, Inger
LU
; Östlund, Britt
; Holgersson, Charlotte
; Persson, Roger
LU
and Rydenfält, Christofer
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2022-03-15
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- BMC Health Services Research
- volume
- 22
- article number
- 345
- publisher
- BioMed Central (BMC)
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85126511435
- pmid:35292041
- ISSN
- 1472-6963
- DOI
- 10.1186/s12913-022-07710-2
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- c43c5bec-528b-4b47-b93b-38103c2b0ec1
- date added to LUP
- 2022-03-16 09:20:51
- date last changed
- 2022-06-16 03:00:11
@article{c43c5bec-528b-4b47-b93b-38103c2b0ec1,
abstract = {{Background<br/>Home care is beset with work environment issues and high staff turnover, while research concerned with interventions to improve the work environment is sparse. Few of the existing interventions apply a participative approach, despite this being associated with more positive outcomes and sustainable change. This paper presents a framework, rooted in action research and action learning, for participatory work environment interventions in home care, and demonstrates how this framework has been implemented in four Swedish home care organizations.<br/><br/>Methods<br/>The framework has three phases (pre-intervention, intervention planning and intervention implementation) and consists of cycles of action and reflection in three constellations: a group of researchers, a reference group with labour market organization representatives and home care managers, and intervention work groups in the home care organizations. The work was documented and analysed with focus on the realization of the framework and challenges that were met on the way. The interventions were evaluated using a pre-/post-test questionnaire design.<br/><br/>Results<br/>Parts of the framework were successfully implemented. The pre-intervention phase and the intervention planning phase, with intervention work groups, worked well. All four groups identified one intervention relevant to their own context. However, only two of the proposed interventions were fully implemented and evaluated. The high staff and management turnover, and the high rate of organizational changes made it impossible to evaluate the interventions statistically. Yet, data from open-ended questions in the post questionnaire showed that the two implemented interventions were perceived as successful.<br/><br/>Conclusions<br/>The participatory framework, presented in this paper, seems promising for work environment interventions in home care. The framework was designed to reduce the risk of known disturbances affecting the process in unstable organizations. Despite this, it proved challenging to execute the framework, and especially the interventions, due to changes happening at high speed. In the two cases where organizational changes were not dominating, the interventions were implemented successfully. While the prerequisites for participation and successful implementation could be improved somewhat, the main issue, the instability of the organizational context, is hard for researchers or the individual home care units to tackle alone.}},
author = {{Persson, Johanna and Johansson, Gerd and Arvidsson, Inger and Östlund, Britt and Holgersson, Charlotte and Persson, Roger and Rydenfält, Christofer}},
issn = {{1472-6963}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{03}},
publisher = {{BioMed Central (BMC)}},
series = {{BMC Health Services Research}},
title = {{A framework for participatory work environment interventions in home care – success factors and some challenges}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12913-022-07710-2}},
doi = {{10.1186/s12913-022-07710-2}},
volume = {{22}},
year = {{2022}},
}