Action-Oriented Study Circles Facilitate Efforts in Nursing Homes to “Go from Feeding to Serving”: Conceptual Perspectives on Knowledge Translation and Workplace Learning
Background. Action-oriented study circles (AOSC) have been found to improve nutrition in 24 nursing homes in Sweden. Little, however, is known about the conceptual use of knowledge (changes in staffs’ knowledge and behaviours). Methods. Qualitative and quantitative methods, structured questionnaires for evaluating participants’ (working in nursing homes) experiences from study circles ( ？？ = 5 9 2 , 71 AOSC) and for comparisons between AOSC participants ( ？？ = 7 4 ) and nonparticipants ( ？？ = 1 1 5 ). Finally, a focus group interview was conducted with AOSC participants (in total ？？ = 1 2 ). Statistical, conventional, and directed content analyses were used. Results. Participants experienced a statistically significant increase in their knowledge about eating and nutrition, when retrospectively comparing before participating and after, as well as in comparison to non-participants, and they felt that the management was engaged in and took care of ideas regarding food and mealtimes to a significantly greater extent than non-participants. The use of AOSC was successful judging from how staff members had changed their attitudes and behaviours toward feeding residents. Conclusions. AOSC facilitates professional development, better system performance, and, as shown in previous studies, better patient outcome. Based on a collaborative learning perspective, AOSC manages to integrate evidence, context, and facilitation in the efforts to achieve knowledge translation in a learning organisation. This study has implications also for other care settings implementing AOSC. 1. Background Promoting nutritional health equity among at risk older populations in nursing homes is of importance. Effective interventions that reduce the risk of undernutrition can help to ensure that people stay healthier in old age. Findings from a couple of studies indicate inequity between the nutritional care provided to patients in hospitals and elderly people in nursing homes. Two surveys conducted in 2007 indicate that patients in hospitals and at risk of undernutrition are more likely to get oral supplements (43–54%) [1] than elderly persons at risk of undernutrition in nursing homes (14–19%) [2]. It is plausible that appropriate nutritional care for older people in nursing homes requires educational interventions. This study is a part of a larger project that has shown, in a before–during–after controlled trial, that by implementing action oriented study circles (AOSC) for the staff in nursing homes, knowledge translation (KT) regarding eating and nutrition was achieved in terms of
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