Infections in care home residents and antimicrobial prescribing Infections and Infestations
Conditions
Interventions
A feasibility study will be conducted in six care homes for older people (three care homes in Northern Ireland and three care homes in the Warwick/Coventry area). At this stage, the exact content of
Sponsors
Queen's University Belfast (UK)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Inclusion criteria
Inclusion criteria: Care homes: 1. Care homes (some with/without nursing care), principally providing 24 hour care for older residents 2. A minimum of 20 (permanent) residents 3. Associated with a small number of general practices (up to four per home providing care for a minimum of 80% of residents within a home) 4. An exclusive arrangement with one pharmacy for dispensing medications Care home staff: 1. Working in the participating care homes 2. Willing to participate in focus group discussions General Practitioners: 1. Working with the participating care homes 2. Willing to participate in interviews
Exclusion criteria
Exclusion criteria: 1. Not meeting the inclusion criteria 2. Not providing written informed consent
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| Because this is a feasibility study, we are unable to judge effectiveness. The outcomes that we are interested in for this feasibility study are predominantly process-related and outlined as follows: 1. Acceptability of the intervention in terms of recruitment and delivery of training as assessed by collecting data on recruitment of care homes (3 months from the start of the project, based on the number of homes approached and the number recruited) and attendance at training events (after the training events have taken place during months 9-12) 2. The feasibility of measuring appropriateness of prescribing and collecting dispensing data from community pharmacies (12 months pre-baseline and 6 months from baseline) 3. Comprehensive overview of the implementation of the intervention as measured through process evaluation (observation, interviews and focus groups) over the course of the study (over 6 months). | — |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| There will be two main secondary outcomes for this feasibility study: 1. The costs of implementing the intervention which will be recording resource used associated with labour, training, intervention materials, equipment and space. These data will be collected over the course of the study through the use of documentation that will be prepared for the study. 2. The likelihood of being able to recruit to a larger definitive study will be assessed by distributing a short questionnaire (providing details about a proposed definitive study) to care homes in selected geographic areas (month 21) | — |
Countries
England, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
Outcome results
None listed