Health and social care Standards are evidence-based statements that demonstrate a desired level of care. Setting Standards for health and social care is a mechanism by which quality improvements can be achieved. Limited evidence exists on appropriate implementation strategies to overcome challenges with implementing Standards. The aim of this protocol is to set out a comprehensive plan to undertake a systematic search, appraisal and mixed research synthesis of the international literature that examines factors that hinder and facilitate implementation of health and social care Standards in order to inform the design of implementation strategies. A research question, “What are the enablers and barriers to implementing health and social care Standards in health and social care services?” was designed using the ‘SPICE’ (Setting, Perspectives, Interest phenomenon of, Comparison, Evaluation) framework. Electronic databases, grey literature and reference lists from included studies will be searched. Primary qualitative, quantitative descriptive and mixed methods studies reporting on enablers and barriers to implementing nationally endorsed Standards, will be included. The review will focus on experiences and perspectives from multi-level stakeholders including patient and public involvement. The quality of studies will be appraised using appropriate tools and findings used to weight interpretation of findings. Search outputs, data extraction and quality appraisal will be undertaken by two reviewers independently. Sandelowski meta-summary will be used to synthesise the data. Frequency and intensity effect sizes of enablers and barriers will be calculated to evaluate their prevalence across the studies. The Confidence in Evidence from Reviews of Qualitative research (CERQual) approach will be applied to assess confidence in the findings of the review. Findings from this examination will inform influencing factors to implementation. Subsequently, this will contribute to pairing Standards with appropriate implementation strategies that will optimise the enabling factors and overcome challenges to implementation.
Health and social care Standards are evidence-based statements that demonstrate a desired level of care. Setting Standards for health and social care is a mechanism by which quality improvements can be achieved. Limited evidence exists on appropriate implementation strategies to overcome challenges with implementing Standards. In order to inform the design of implementation strategies, there is a need to examine factors that influence their implementation. The aim of this protocol is to set out a comprehensive plan to undertake a systematic search, appraisal and mixed research synthesis of the international literature that examines implementation of health and social care Standards. A research question, “What are the enablers and barriers to implementing health and social care Standards in health and social care services?” was designed using the ‘SPICE’ (Setting, Perspectives, Interest phenomenon of, Comparison, Evaluation) framework. Electronic databases, grey literature and reference lists from included studies will be searched. Primary qualitative, quantitative descriptive and mixed methods studies reporting on enablers and barriers to implementing nationally endorsed Standards, will be included. The review will focus on experiences and perspectives from multi-level stakeholders including patient and public involvement. The quality of studies will be appraised using appropriate tools and findings used to weight interpretation of findings. Search outputs, data extraction and quality appraisal will be undertaken by two reviewers independently. Sandelowski meta-summary will be used to synthesise the data. Frequency and intensity effect sizes of enablers and barriers will be calculated to evaluate their prevalence across the studies. The Confidence in Evidence from Reviews of Qualitative research (CERQual) approach will be applied to assess confidence in the findings of the review. Findings from this examination will inform influencing factors to implementation. Subsequently, this will contribute to pairing Standards with appropriate implementation strategies that will optimise the enabling factors and overcome challenges to implementation.
Setting standards is a quality improvement mechanism and an important means for shaping the provision of health and social care services. Standards comprise statements describing a process or outcome of care. Setting standards is a global practice. It would be useful to have an understanding of the underpinning definitions of standards used internationally. Therefore, the aim of this review was to examine definitions of health and social care standards used internationally and identify similarities and differences. A targeted grey literature search of standard-setting bodies' websites and related health legislation was conducted to retrieve explicit definitions of standards. Of 15 standard-setting bodies that were searched, 12 definitions of standards were narratively synthesised. Terms that appeared in two or more of the definitions were extracted. Counts and percentages were calculated for these terms to determine magnitude of use. The commonalities among definitions included 'quality' (n = 6, 50%), 'statements' (n = 5, 42%), 'performance' (n = 5, 42%), and 'measureable' (n = 4, 33%). The less commonly used terms were 'processes' (n = 3, 25%), 'set' (n = 3, 25%), 'evidence based' (n = 2, 17%), 'outcome' (n = 2, 17%), 'safe' (n = 2, 17%), and 'guidance' (n = 2, 17%). Explicit definitions of standards were not retrieved from health legislation documents. Standard-setting bodies develop standards in
BackgroundHealth and social care standards have been widely adopted as a quality improvement intervention. Standards are typically made up of evidence-based statements that describe safe, high-quality, person-centred care as an outcome or process of care delivery. They involve stakeholders at multiple levels and multiple activities across diverse services. As such, challenges exist with their implementation. Existing literature relating to standards has focused on accreditation and regulation programmes and there is limited evidence to inform implementation strategies specifically tailored to support the implementation of standards. This systematic review aimed to identify and describe the most frequently reported enablers and barriers to implementing (inter)nationally endorsed standards, in order to inform the selection of strategies that can optimise their implementation.MethodsDatabase searches were conducted in Medline, CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature), SocINDEX, Google Scholar, OpenGrey and GreyNet International, complemented by manual searches of standard-setting bodies’ websites and hand searching references of included studies. Primary qualitative, quantitative descriptive and mixed methods studies that reported enablers and barriers to implementing nationally or internationally endorsed standards were included. Two researchers independently screened search outcomes and conducted data extraction, methodological appraisal and CERQual (Confidence in Evidence from Reviews of Qualitative research) assessments. An inductive analysis was conducted using Sandelowski’s meta-summary and measured frequency effect sizes (FES) for enablers and barriers.Results4072 papers were retrieved initially with 35 studies ultimately included. Twenty-two thematic statements describing enablers were created from 322 descriptive findings and grouped under six themes. Twenty-four thematic statements describing barriers were created from 376 descriptive findings and grouped under six themes. The most prevalent enablers with CERQual assessments graded as high included: available support tools at local level (FES 55%); training courses to increase awareness and knowledge of the standards (FES 52%) and knowledge sharing and interprofessional collaborations (FES 45%). The most prevalent barriers with CERQual assessments graded as high included: a lack of knowledge of what standards are (FES 63%), staffing constraints (FES 46%), insufficient funds (FES 43%).ConclusionsThe most frequently reported enablers related to available support tools, education and shared learning. The most frequently reported barriers related to a lack of knowledge of standards, staffing issues and insufficient funds. Incorporating these findings into the selection of implementation strategies will enhance the likelihood of effective implementation of standards and subsequently, improve safe, quality care for people using health and social care services.
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