Assessment of a web-based Guided Self-Determination intervention for adults with type 2 diabetes in general practice: a study protocol

Patients' experiences with participating in a team-based person-centred intervention for patients at risk of or diagnosed with COPD in general practice

BACKGROUND

Symptoms and complications of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) can affect daily activities and quality of life, and patients with COPD require long-term follow-up by their general practitioner. Providing patients with or at risk of COPD practical skills and motivation to improve their self-management is important. On this background, an interdisciplinary follow-up program was designed based on the Guided Self-Determination counselling method to facilitate problem-solving and mutual decision-making between healthcare professionals and patients. The aim of the study was to explore patients and healthcare professionals` experiences with the Guided Self-Determination-program to investigate feasibility issues.

METHODS

A qualitative design was used to get insights in the experiences of receiving the Guided Self-Determination counselling program. In total, 13 patients with COPD (mean age 71.7 ± 7.7 years) 4 were current smokers, and 7 at risk of COPD (mean age 54.1 ± 9.9 years) all current smokers, received the Guided Self-Determination program. The researchers performed individual semi-structured telephone interviews after the 12 months Guided Self-Determination program with two patients at risk of COPD, four patients with COPD, three nurses, and five general practitioners. The intervention consisted of structured consultations with the nurse and patient in collaboration with the general practitioner at baseline and after 3, 6, and 12 months. The Guided Self-Determination method comprised facilitation of a mutual reflection process between the patient and the nurse to enhance self-management skills. Each consultation lasted for 60 min. The interviews were analysed using thematic analyses.

RESULTS

Two themes were identified: (1) A structured follow-up is challenging but motivating. (2) A counselling method that opens for conversation, but it requires resources.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings indicated that patients with or at risk of COPD experienced enhanced self-management skills after participating in a structured and systematic team-based follow-up in general practice with use of the Guided Self-Determination method. The regularity of the follow-up seemed to be important to succeed to help the patients making lifestyle changes to increase health benefits. However, the Guided Self-Determination method was experienced as time consuming among the general practitioners and nurses, and there are currently no available financial rates for this type of treatment in Norway which may be a barrier to further implementation.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

The trial is registered in ClinicalTrials.gov (ID: NCT04076384).

Impact of the person-centred intervention guided self-determination across healthcare settings-An integrated review

AIM

To review the evidence of the existing literature on the impact of guided self-determination across methodologies in different healthcare settings.

METHODS

An integrated five-stage review.

RESULTS

Forty-five eligible papers were included. Guided self-determination was applied in full- or small-scale, or combined with another intervention or approach in different healthcare settings handling, for example diabetes, stroke survivorship, schizophrenia, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and medical disorder, gynaecological and breast cancer, endometriosis, persons with chronic pain, persons in haemodialysis and intensive care survivors. The included studies covered 12 randomised trials, 26 qualitative and seven papers of different methodology. A statistically significant effect was found in three trials. Six main themes describe the qualitative findings across papers on patients: (1) Guided self-determination reduces disease-related loneliness, (2) Insight enables integration of life and disease, (3) Reflection sheets-appreciated but challenging tool to prompt insights and person-specific knowledge, (4) New person-specific knowledge enables person-centred support, (5) Feeling seen and believed in a new and trusted relationship and (6) Exchange of knowledge enables the development of life skills. Four themes describe the healthcare professionals' experience: (1) Change of usual practice-a decision from above, (2) A new role-unlearning previous behaviour and need for support, (3) Reflection sheets as facilitators and barriers and (4) Discovering the benefits of changing to a person-centred approach.

CONCLUSION

Overall, guided self-determination proved to have a great impact on patient important outcomes and was useful and well-accepted by the majority of patients and healthcare professionals. Albeit guided self-determination is not a 'one size fits all' method. Continuous training and supervision of professionals are a necessary mean when implementing guided self-determination to enhance adoption and sustainability in clinical practice.

From the challenge of assessing autonomy to the instruments used in practice: A scoping review

Autonomy is one of the essential components to live a quality life. Monitoring this autonomy is, in effect, essential, to allow the nurses to conceive, implement and evaluate interventions aimed at its promotion or even maintenance. For this reason, this scoping review aims to map the evidence to identify and analyze the instruments used to assess the person’s autonomy, which emerges from scientific production.

Diabetes management intervention studies: lessons learned from two studies

Introduction

Several clinical studies investigated improvements of patient outcomes due to diabetes management interventions. However, chronic disease management is intricate with complex multifactorial behavior patterns. Such studies thus have to be well designed in order to allocate all observed effects to the defined intervention and to exclude effects of other confounders as well as possible.

This article aims to provide challenges in interpreting diabetes management intervention studies and suggests approaches for optimizing study implementation and for avoiding pitfalls based on current experiences.

Main body

Lessons from the STeP and ProValue studies demonstrated the difficulty in medical device studies that rely on behavioral changes in intervention group patients. To successfully engage patients, priority should be given to health care professionals being engaged, operational support in technical issues being available, and adherence being assessed in detail.

Another difficulty is to avoid contamination of the control group with the intervention; therefore, strict allocation concealment should be maintained. However, randomization and blinding are not always possible. A limited effect size due to improvements regarding clinical endpoints in the control group is often caused by the Hawthorne effect. Improvements in the control group can also be caused with increased attention paid to the subjects. In order to reduce improvements in the control group, it is essential to identify the specific reasons and adjust study procedures accordingly. A pilot phase is indispensable for this. Another option is to include a third study arm to control for enhanced standard of care and study effects. Furthermore, retrospective data collection could be a feasible option. Adaptive study designs might reduce the necessity of a separate pilot study and combine the exploratory and confirmatory stages of an investigation in one single study.

Conclusion

There are several aspects to consider in medical device studies when using interventions that rely on changes in behavior to achieve an effective implementation and significant study results. Improvements in the control group may reduce effect sizes and limit statistical significance; therefore, alternatives to the traditional randomized controlled trials may be considered.

Reconfiguring clinical communication in the electronic counselling context: The nuances of disruption

AIM

This study expands on an earlier study about diabetes nurses' experiences of the Guided Self-Determination intervention in face-to-face consultations among people with type 2 diabetes. This current study investigates Guided Self-Determination in an electronic format with the aim to explore what can be learned about the written form for health communication from the perspectives of diabetes nurses in primary care.

DESIGN

The study has an explorative, qualitative design.

METHOD

Four diabetes nurses were individually interviewed after completing the electronic intervention. The analysis was guided by Interpretive Description.

RESULTS

Small sample size apart, the rich empirical data and quality of dialogue point to the interviewees' earlier contact, comfort and trust with the researcher. The written electronic communication could disrupt nurses' possibilities for using basic and advanced communication skills. Findings also indicate that written electronic communication can foster thoughtful responses to patients and increase possibilities for a transparent counselling delivery process.

The influence of an eHealth intervention for adults with type 2 diabetes on the patient-nurse relationship: a qualitative study

BACKGROUND

A constructive patient-nurse relationship is beneficial in self-management support approaches. Research indicates eHealth interventions hold a potential for self-management support for adults with type 2 diabetes. However, eHealth may change the patient-nurse relationship. No studies to date have addressed how eHealth self-management support interventions with written asynchronous communication can influence the relationship between patients and nurses.

AIM

The aim of this study was to explore how an eHealth intervention based on the Guided Self-Determination program (eGSD) influences the patient-nurse relationship from the perspective of patients participating and the nurses conducting the intervention.

METHODS

A qualitative approach with individual semi-structured interviews was used. Ten patients with type 2 diabetes who completed the eGSD and four nurses who delivered the intervention participated. The data were transcribed verbatim, and qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the text.

RESULTS

The findings revealed two themes: 'eGSD facilitates a reciprocal understanding and a flexibility in the relationship' and 'eGSD creates a more fragile relationship', reflecting ambiguous experiences with the eGSD.

CONCLUSION AND RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE

The findings indicate that eGSD influences the patient-nurse relationship by facilitating reciprocal understanding and flexibility. Both patients and RNs acknowledged these outcomes as beneficial. Nevertheless, familiar in-person consultations were expressed as integral for the patient-nurse relationship. As written communication in eHealth is a novelty, it demands new knowledge and expertise that RNs must master. Findings from this study may therefore be acknowledged when developing and implementing eHealth interventions. Education programs in written eHealth communication, as well as guidelines and frameworks on how to professionally and effectively conduct eHealth services while maintaining supportive patient-nurse relationships, should be a priority for institutions that educate healthcare personnel, health institutions and other stakeholders.

New Possibilities in Life with Type 2 Diabetes: Experiences from Participating in a Guided Self-Determination Programme in General Practice

Research suggests that guided self-determination programmes can support self-management of diabetes by empowering self-determined goal setting and competence building. As most research in this area has focused on people with type 1 diabetes, knowledge is lacking on how adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus experience participation in such programmes. This study reports the modelling phase of a complex intervention design that explored the experiences of adults with type 2 diabetes who participated in a nurse-led guided self-determination programme in general practice and examines how the programme affected patients' motivation to self-manage diabetes. The qualitative design with semistructured interviews included 9 adults with type 2 diabetes who participated in the programme. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the data. The findings indicate that the participants experienced new life possibilities after participating in the programme, which seemed to have a positive influence on their motivation for self-management. Through reflections about how to live with diabetes, the participants reinterpreted their life with diabetes by gradually developing a closer relationship with the disease, moving towards acceptance. The fact that dialogue with the nurses was seen to be on an equal footing helped support the participants to become more self-determined.

Written reflection in an eHealth intervention for adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus: a qualitative study

BACKGROUND

Individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) are responsible for the daily decisions and actions necessary to manage their disease, which makes self-management the cornerstone of diabetes care. Many patients do not reach recommended treatment goals, and thus it is important to develop and evaluate innovative interventions that facilitate optimal motivation for adequate self-management of T2DM.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of the current study was to explore how adults with T2DM experience using reflection sheets to stimulate written reflection in the context of the Guided Self-Determination (GSD) eHealth intervention and how written reflection might affect their motivation for self-management of T2DM.

METHODS

We used a qualitative design in which data were collected through individual interviews. The sample consisted of 10 patients who completed the GSD eHealth intervention, and data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis.

RESULTS

The qualitative content analysis yielded 2 main themes. We labeled the first theme as "Written reflection affects awareness and commitment in diabetes self-management", which reflects 2 subthemes, namely, "Writing creates space and time for autonomous reflection" and "Writing influences individuals' focus in diabetes self-management". We labeled the second theme as "Written reflection is perceived as inapplicable in diabetes self-management", which reflects 2 subthemes, namely, "Responding in writing is difficult" and "The timing of the writing is inappropriate".

CONCLUSION

Our findings indicate that written reflection in the context of the GSD eHealth intervention may be conducive to motivation for diabetes self-management for some patients. However, it seems that in-person consultation with the diabetes nurse may be necessary to achieve the full potential benefit of the GSD as an eHealth intervention. We advocate further development and examination of the GSD as a "blended" approach, especially for those who consider written reflection to be difficult or unfamiliar.

Dropout From an eHealth Intervention for Adults With Type 2 Diabetes: A Qualitative Study

Background

Adequate self-management is the cornerstone of type 2 diabetes treatment, as people make the majority of daily treatment measures and health decisions. The increasing prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and the complexity of diabetes self-management demonstrate the need for innovative and effective ways to deliver self-management support. eHealth interventions are promoted worldwide and hold a great potential in future health care for people with chronic diseases such as T2DM. However, many eHealth interventions face high dropout rates. This led to our interest in the experiences of participants who dropped out of an eHealth intervention for adults with T2DM, based on the Guided Self-Determination (GSD) counseling method.

Objective

In this study, we aimed to explore experiences with an eHealth intervention based on GSD in general practice from the perspective of those who dropped out and to understand their reasons for dropping out. To the best of our knowledge, no previous qualitative study has focused on participants who withdrew from an eHealth self-management support intervention for adults with T2DM.

Methods

A qualitative design based on telephone interviews was used to collect data. The sample comprised 12 adults with type 2 diabetes who dropped out of an eHealth intervention. Data were collected in 2016 and subjected to qualitative content analysis.

Results

We identified one overall theme: “Losing motivation for intervention participation.” This theme was illustrated by four categories related to the participants’ experiences of the eHealth intervention: (1) frustrating technology, (2) perceiving the content as irrelevant and incomprehensible, (3) choosing other activities and perspectives, and (4) lacking face-to-face encounters.

Conclusions

Our findings indicate that the eHealth intervention based on GSD without face-to-face encounters with nurses reduced participants’ motivation for engagement in the intervention. To maintain motivation, our study points to the importance of combining eHealth with regular face-to-face consultations. Our study also shows that the perceived benefit of the GSD eHealth intervention intertwined with choosing to focus on other matters in complex daily lives are critical aspects in motivation for such interventions. This indicates the importance of giving potential participants tailored information about the aim, the content, and the effort needed to remain engaged in complex interventions so that eligible participants are recruited. Finally, motivation for engagement in the eHealth intervention was influenced by the technology used in this study. It seems important to facilitate more user-friendly but high-security eHealth technology. Our findings have implications for improving the eHealth intervention and to inform researchers and health care providers who are organizing eHealth interventions focusing on self-management support in order to reduce dropout rates.