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Aims and objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of chronic wounds on the physical, emotional, social, lifestyle and financial domains of quality of life among people who self-treat their wounds.Background: Patient-centred models of care have received increased attention over

Pressure injuries are prevalent in highly dependent aged care residents. This study investigated the clinical effectiveness of the application of the Mepilex Border Sacrum and Mepilex Heel dressings to prevent the development of facility-acquired pressure injuries. A total of 288 recently admitted residents were enrolled from 40 Australian nursing homes into a randomised controlled trial. Residents randomised to standard care (n = 150) received pressure injury prevention as recommended by international guidelines. Residents randomised to the intervention (n = 138) received standard pressure injury prevention care and had dressings applied to their sacrum and heels. Participants were comparable on demographic and physiological parameters. More residents in the control group developed pressure injuries than in the intervention group (16 vs 3, P = 0.004), and they developed more pressure injuries in total than residents in the intervention group. The results represent a relative risk reduction of 80% for residents treated with the dressings and for every 12 patients that we treated we prevented one pressure injury. Based on our findings, we conclude that the use of the Mölnlycke Mepilex Border Sacrum and Mepilex Heel dressings confers a significant additional protective benefit to nursing home residents with a high risk of developing a facility-acquired pressure injury.

Background Implementation research may play an important role in reducing research waste by identifying strategies that support translation of evidence into practice. Implementation of healthcare interventions is influenced by multiple factors including the organisational context, implementation strategies and features of the intervention as perceived by people delivering and receiving the intervention. Recently, concepts relating to perceived features of interventions have been gaining traction in published literature, namely, acceptability, fidelity, feasibility, scalability and sustainability. These concepts may influence uptake of healthcare interventions, yet there seems to be little consensus about their nature and impact. The aim of this paper is to develop a testable conceptual framework of implementability of healthcare interventions that includes these five concepts. Methods A multifaceted approach was used to develop and refine a conceptual framework of implementability of healthcare interventions. An overview of reviews identified reviews published between January 2000 and March 2021 that focused on at least one of the five concepts in relation to a healthcare intervention. These findings informed the development of a preliminary framework of implementability of healthcare interventions which was presented to a panel of experts. A nominal group process was used to critique, refine and agree on a final framework. Results A total of 252 publications were included in the overview of reviews. Of these, 32% were found to be feasible, 4% reported sustainable changes in practice and 9% were scaled up to other populations and/or settings. The expert panel proposed that scalability and sustainability of a healthcare intervention are dependent on its acceptability, fidelity and feasibility. Furthermore, acceptability, fidelity and feasibility require re-evaluation over time and as the intervention is developed and then implemented in different settings or with different populations. The final agreed framework of implementability provides the basis for a chronological, iterative approach to planning for wide-scale, long-term implementation of healthcare interventions. Conclusions We recommend that researchers consider the factors acceptability, fidelity and feasibility (proposed to influence sustainability and scalability) during the preliminary phases of intervention development, evaluation and implementation, and iteratively check these factors in different settings and over time.