Altruism, an opinion from a trusted person and willingness to change their current medication regimen are among factors that drive residents to participate in a study on simplifying medications, a University of South Australia study has found.
The SImplification of Medications Prescribed to Long-tErm care Residents’ (SIMPLER) study aimed to develop a structured process to consolidate medication administration times for residents.
The trial, which commenced in 2017, involved 242 aged care residents from eight Helping Hand aged care facilities in South Australia.
Lead researcher Dr Janet Sluggett said they undertook a process evaluation of the study to investigate the uptake of the trial.
“We wanted to understand those key processes that are important in the success of obtaining the results in them in the delivery of the trial,” Dr Sluggett told Australian Ageing Agenda.
The study found altruism, the opinion of trusted people such as a family member or general practitioner, and a person’s willingness to change medications impacted the resident or their representative’s decision about participating in the trial.
Dr Sluggett said the study identified strategies to improve a person’s willingness to participate in the trial, such as one-on-one communication.
“Talking to residents and family members or third parties on a one-to-one basis was perceived as a more effective method of recruitment than recruiting by phone.
“Another aspect that we found important was that to emphasise the interdisciplinary nature of the project so that GPs, pharmacists, aged care staff and the residents themselves were all involved in the intervention,” said Dr Sluggett, a senior research fellow at UniSA.
It was also important to emphasise the intervention was about medication simplification, not starting or stopping medications, she said.
The study also identified unintended but beneficial consequences for providers participating in the research, including the upskilling of staff.
“We trained some of their nurses within the aged care provider that we worked with to become research nurses. And so overall, there was an upscaling of those staff,” Dr Sluggett said.
Dr Sluggett said the trial also identified opportunities to improve the delivery of resident medication management reviews.
“That prompted a review of the delivery of that program within the organisation and there were some changes as a result of that,” Dr Sluggett said.
Factors for successful implementation
The study also identified the factors important for successful delivery of the medication simplification intervention and its uptake into practice by aged care nurses and GPs, Dr Sluggett said.
These included having good stakeholder working relationships between the pharmacists, aged care staff and the GP, she said.
The study also found staff having an appreciation for the potential benefits of simplification and the aims and intended impacts of the trial helped drive the implementation of pharmacist recommendations, she said.
The findings highlighted it is possible to conduct medication management interventions and clinical trials in residential aged care, Dr Sluggett said.
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