Nurse-led Medicines' Monitoring in Care Homes: a Process Evaluation

Background:

Between 1 in 4 and 1 in 25 people benefit from their prescribed medicines (Schork 2015). However, adverse drug reactions (ADRs, known as side effects) occur in 7.8% (7.2-8.4%) patients in community (or ambulatory) care (Hakkarainen et al 2013). Most of these are preventable (Hakkarainen et al 2013, NICE 2015). Adverse drug events (ADE), which include ADRs and under-prescribing, and medicines' mismanagement are responsible for 8% of healthcare spend in the USA, $213bn (Aitkin & Valkova 2013) and 9.5% of direct costs in Sweden.

The West Wales ADR Profiles for medicines' monitoring has improved quality of care by reducing the prescription of mental health medicines and identifying and addressing previously unsuspected adverse effects, such as coupled beats and severe hypertension (Jordan 2002, et al 2002), infections (Gabe el al 2014), chest pain and valproate-induced pancreatitis (Jones et al 2016), and, in care homes, drug-induced Parkinson's (Jordan et al 2014), pain, nausea and behaviour problems (Jordan et al 2015). The investigators now need to know how the intervention can embed in practice and governance frameworks, and benefit from pharmacist involvement and new monitoring devices.

Aims and objectives:

The investigators aim to explore

1. What is needed to sustain implementation of the WWADR Profile in routine practice
2. How it might be enhanced by a) pharmacist involvement and b) digitisation and new monitoring technology c) new profiles in other areas, such as respiratory medicine, pain control, falls.

Research Design A qualitative process evaluation and audit of interest

Duration 9 months from approval date

Location Care homes in Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board U.K.

The investigators have received full approval from the West Wales Research Ethics Committee,Committee (reference 16/WA/038, IRAS ID 213050), to carry out this study. Written informed consent will be sought for all interviews, observations (service users and nurses), and reviews of reflective diaries or accounts. Copies of the consent forms will be placed in service users' records or given to the interviewees, as appropriate, and stored by the research team in a locked cabinet in a locked office. Participants or their consultees will be free to withdraw or retract their data at any time. Swansea University are the study sponsors and provide indemnity cover.

Recruitment All 5 care homes from the previous trial (Jordan et al 2015) and 5 new care homes have opted to participate.

Methods:

The investigators will use interviews, observations and reflective diaries/ accounts with the participants of 5 previous research sites, and 5 newly recruited care homes.

The investigators propose to explore 2 additions to nurse-led medicines' monitoring:

• Cluster pharmacist or study pharmacist review completed Profiles in a pilot
• Combining administration with the Multiparametric sensor systems (Yang et al 2015) or electronic version of the Profiles in an audit of interest.

Data Handling- All data will be anonymised immediately, and kept strictly confidential. Participants and care homes will be assigned study numbers, and personal names will only appear on consent forms. A file linking care homes' names and addresses to study numbers will be stored in a password protected file on a password protected computer in a locked office used only by the PI. Service users' ages, sex, medicines and medical conditions will be recorded. Professionals' roles and length of service will be recorded. Data will be managed in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998, the Caldicott Guardian, the Research Governance Framework for Health & Care Research Wales, and the Research Ethics' Committee. Study documents will be stored in locked filing cabinets in a locked office for sole use of the PI. All study data will be anonymised before being entered into electronic files, which will be stored on pass-word protected computers for sole use of the researchers.

Consent- Prospective service user participants will be approached by their nurses. onsent to participation will be obtained by a qualified member of staff who is aware of the Mental Capacity Act 2005. For those without capacity to consent, as this is not a CTIMP, their consultees will be approached for advice regarding involvement. For many participants the consultee is a relative in regular contact; however, some service users have no regular visitors, and rely on professional support. Information sheets (in English and Welsh) and verbal information will be offered and potential participants will be given at least a week to decide whether to be observed or interviewed. Residents (or their family or consultees) to be observed will be asked to sign consent to non-participant observation and review of case notes.

Service users' and carers' views will be obtained as part of this project.

Anticipated outcome: The enhanced Profiles will offer a measure of care quality that matters to service users for example, pain, sedation, food and fluid intake and a sustainable strategy to improve care quality by: a) regular systematic review and transfer of information to pharmacists and prescribers (Francis 2013, Andrews and Butler 2014, Older People's Commissioner 2014, Flynn 2015); b) integration with NHS services e.g. contacts with prescribers, GPs, dentists and opticians; c) pharmacist reviews to optimise medication regimens for participants.

Outcomes to be reported:

Number and nature of problems addressed (including prescription changes)and understanding of any changes needed to optimise clinical gain and sustain implementation.