CKD project used as model of effective implementation of research
The GM CLAHRC’s Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) project has been used as case study in a recent article about the effective implementation of change and service improvement in primary care. The article entitled ‘Managing boundaries in primary care service improvement: A developmental approach to communities of practice’ was written by Roman Kislov, Research Associate, who conducted a study within the CLAHRC; specifically looking at the CKD project. During the study, Roman carried out qualitative research including case studies, semi structured interviews and observations with GPs and practice nurses and the CLAHRC implementation team to investigate the formation of multi-professional communities of practice and their effectiveness in knowledge sharing and collaboration to improve the identification of CKD patients.
Roman Kislov said: "The paper is based on the interviews conducted in the Chronic Kidney Collaborative and specifically looks at those barriers to knowledge flows that were caused by boundaries between different professions and organisations operating in the primary care sector. It shows that professional boundaries within multi-professional teams working on the CKD project were successfully bridged, while a much more formidable barrier lay between multi-professional teams working in different primary care settings. The paper argues that where pre-existing barriers to knowledge flows between different general practice are too strong, bringing their representatives together in a broader forum does not always lead to the dissolution of boundaries and should thus be complemented by external facilitation."
The article is now published in Implementation Science – a peer-reviewed online journal that aims to publish research relevant to the scientific study of methods to promote the uptake of research findings into routine healthcare in clinical, organisational or policy contexts.
Joanne Thomas, Lead Programme Manager for Implementation of GM CLAHRC said: “This is a fantastic achievement; the article provides a very informative insight to some of the barriers within primary care to sharing knowledge and spreading improvement. It draws upon the work the implementation did to improve the identification and management of patients with CKD in the first phase of the project and examines the barriers practitioners faced when spreading knowledge.” The article is available to download here.
Date Published: 17/10/2012