ObjectivesNursing homes are hit relatively hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. Dutch long-term care (LTC) organisations installed outbreak teams (OTs) to coordinate COVID-19 infection prevention and control. LTC organisations and relevant national policy organisations expressed the need to share experiences from these OTs that can be applied directly in COVID-19 policy. The aim of the ‘COVID-19 management in nursing homes by outbreak teams’ (MINUTES) study is to describe the challenges, responses and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Dutch nursing homes. In this first article, we describe the MINUTES Study and present data characteristics.DesignThis large-scale multicentre study has a qualitative design using manifest content analysis. The participating organisations shared their OT minutes and other meeting documents on a weekly basis. Data from week 16 (April) to week 53 (December) 2020 included the first two waves of COVID-19.SettingNational study with 41 large Dutch LTC organisations.ParticipantsThe LTC organisations represented 563 nursing home locations and almost 43 000 residents.ResultsAt least 36 of the 41 organisations had one or more SARS-CoV-2 infections among their residents. Most OTs were composed of management, medical staff, support services staff, policy advisors and communication specialists. Topics that emerged from the documents were: crisis management, isolation of residents, personal protective equipment and hygiene, staff, residents’ well-being, visitor policies, testing and vaccination.ConclusionsOT meeting minutes are a valuable data source to monitor the impact of and responses to COVID-19 in nursing homes. Depending on the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, data collection and analysis will continue until November 2021. The results are used directly in national and organisational COVID-19 policy.

Purpose Evidence underpinning treatment of older persons with complex conditions is often sparse, and involving more early career physicians committed to optimizing care for older adults may help increase a relevant evidence base. We examined perception of and motivation to conduct research in physicians (residents) specializing in care of older adults. Subjects and Methods Residents of an academic medical centre in the Netherlands enrolled in a 3-year training programme. The programme includes a mandatory evidence-based medicine (EBM) training study on pain and discomfort in cognitively impaired nursing home patients, in which residents perform their research over the 3-year duration of the programme. We employed a mixed-methods design with survey and qualitative interviews (December 2019–April 2020). The survey included validated scales with agreement response options rated 1–7. Qualitative interviews were underpinned by interpretative phenomenological analysis. Results Of 38 invited residents, 23 (15 females) participated. The mean score on perceptions of research was 4.1 (SD 0.8); on intrinsic motivation 4.8 (SD 1.0); on extrinsic motivation 4.3, with a higher SD of 1.4. Eight interviews also showed diversity in the extent to which residents felt equipped to conduct the mandatory EBM training study, and research more generally, which was related to previous experiences performing research. The residents generally did not anticipate conducting research themselves despite recognizing the benefits of training in research. Conclusion Perceptions and motivation of the residents specializing in care of older people to conduct research, although considered relevant to their practice, were not very positive. The study results in recommendations to motivate physicians in geriatrics training to conduct research, eg through personalized boosting of self-efficacy. This is crucial to motivate future physicians to contribute to research relevant to older people in more ways than just delivering data for research conceived by (non-clinical) researchers.