A 2018/2019 Summer Studentship research project
The evaluation will allow Nurse Maude to understand what it can do to support staff with regard to any additional training requirements and understand the usability of the system. It will also provide information which will enhance implementation of future large change management projects.
Student: Sam Selwyn Jebaraj
Supervisors: Virginia Maskill, Gill Coe (New Zealand Institute of Community Health Care), Kosta Tabakakis (University of Otago, Christchurch), Mary-Anne Stone (Nurse Maude)
Sponsor: TBC
Student prerequisites
Must be a student with good interpersonal, analytical, and report writing skills.
How to apply
Contact the first supervisor, Virginia Maskill, to express your interest:
Tel +64 3 364 3861
Email virginia.maskill@otago.ac.nz
Project brief
Introduction
Nurse Maude is the largest home-based support provider in Canterbury, providing services to a mostly older population, through district nursing, specialist nursing clinics, palliative care (both in the community and the hospice), hospital and home care, such as showering, medication management, housework, and shopping. The workforce is widely distributed and mobile particularly in district nursing and home care.
Nurse Maude is in the process of implementing a new patient management system (CRM) across the organisation to replace an existing patient management system which does not meet the needs of the organisation as it moves to a more technology-assisted work environment. This is a significant transition for the organisation which particularly affects its community nursing, home care, specialist services, the Hub and service co-ordination, as well as other support services. Nurse Maude wants to undertake evaluation research into the implementation process, with a view to utilising the information to inform any future major transitions and to position Nurse Maude as an organisation with the skills to introduce a new patient management system across a large, widely distributed workforce.
Aim
The aim of the project is to survey the views of Nurse Maude staff (registered nurses and support workers) regarding the implementation of the new electronic patient management system.
The objectives of this study are:
- To gather the staff’s experience of the change, and;
- Their opinions of the usability of the system
Method
Sample
Approximately 750 staff (registered nurses and support workers) will be using CRM day-to-day and they will all be invited to participate in a survey.
A 60–70% response rate is expected, depending on the service area.
Data collection
Data will be collected through a survey using Likert scale responses and some free text questions.
The survey will be accessed either online through Survey Monkey, or a written form will be provided for those support workers for whom Survey Monkey is not accessible.
The surveys will either have been completed on-line in Survey Monkey or the written responses entered into Survey Monkey by Nurse Maude staff prior to the summer studentship commencing.
Data analysis
The results will be imported into SPSS for analysis. Descriptive statistics will be used to analyze the Likert scale data. Thematic analysis will be undertaken with the data obtained from the free text questions. Analysis will include understanding the needs of the different staff roles and different areas.
Ethics
Ethical approval for the initial data collection will be obtained by Nurse Maude staff through the Nurse Maude Ethics Committee prior to the project commencing.
Ethical approval for the summer student project will be obtained through the University of Otago, and then lodged with the Nurse Maude Ethics Committee.
The student will be bound by all ethics requirements in relation to ensuring the de-identified data is kept confidential, and reported in an ethical way meeting publication requirements.
Student researcher’s component of the study
The role of the student will be to undertake data analysis (both statistical and thematic), produce the written report, present findings to Nurse Maude staff, and the UOC summer studentship presentation, draft the publication and work with the supervisors to prepare this for publication.
The final outcome is a written report for Nurse Maude, with a view to publication.
