Family Participation in Ghana Hospital Care

NCT06632288 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: FPGHMM
• Study Type: observational
• Target: 170
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

This mixed methods study aims to understand family care participation in the adult medicine wards of Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Ghana. The main questions it aims to answer, from the perspective of the patient, family caregiver, nurse, doctor, ward assistant, and hospital administrator, are:

1. 1.What is the role of the family caregiver in hospital care?
2. 2.What is the perceived effect of family participation in hospital care?
3. 3.What are the barriers and facilitators experienced in family participation?
4. 4.What are suggestions for family participation interventions?
5. 5.A prospective observational cohort (population: patients and family caregivers)
6. 6.A time and motion study (population: nurses and doctors)
7. 7.Interviews and focus group discussions (population: patients, family caregivers, nurses, doctors, ward assistants, and hospital administrators)

Conditions

Hospitalized Patients

Keywords

Family caregivers; Hospital; Adult; Family; Care; Mixed method; Observational; Cohort; Prospective; Qualitative; Time and Motion; Ghana

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (4)

• The role of family participation in hospital care

  The role of family participation will be described with data from: 1. Prospective observational cohort: patient baseline characteristics, family caregiver baseline characteristics, care characteristics during follow-up (for example: tasks performed, number of caregivers present, hours caregiver is present), end of follow-up status (example: discharged, transferred, death). 2. Interviews and FDG: with patients, family caregivers, nurses, doctors, ward assistants, and hospital administrators.

  During admission to the general medicine ward

• The perceived effect of family participation in hospital care

  The perceived effect of family participation will be described with data from: 1. Time and motion: division of work time of nurses and doctors, time spend interacting with patients and family caregivers. 2. Interviews and FDG: with patients, family caregivers, nurses, doctors, ward assistants, and hospital administrators.

  During admission to the general medicine ward

• The barriers and facilitators of family participation in hospital care

  The barriers and facilitators of family participation will be described with data from: 1. Prospective observational cohort: patient baseline characteristics, family caregiver baseline characteristics, care characteristics during follow-up (for example: tasks performed, number of caregivers present, hours caregiver is present), end of follow-up status (example: discharged, transferred, death). 2. Time and motion: division of work time of nurses and doctors, time spend interacting with patients and family caregivers. 3. Interviews and FDG: with patients, family caregivers, nurses, doctors, ward assistants, and hospital administrators.

  During admission to the general medicine ward

• The intervention suggestions for family participation in hospital care

  The barriers and facilitators of family participation will be described with data from: 1\. Interviews and FDG: with patients, family caregivers, nurses, doctors, ward assistants, and hospital administrators.

  During admission to the general medicine ward

Study Arms (3)

Prospective Observational Cohort

Patient and family caregiver dyads will be recruited for a prospective cohort observation for at least 24 hours and a maximum of seven days. At inclusion, baseline and self-reported data from admission until inclusion will be collected. After inclusion, data will be collected every 24 hours on self-reported outcomes of the last 24 hours. Patients and family caregiver dyads will be followed until discharge, transfer to another department, death or a maximum of seven days of follow-up. If dyads stay longer than seven days, daily follow-up is ended and they are called once 14 days later to collect outcome data.

Time and Motion

Nurses and doctors will be recruited for time-and-motion observations by a trained non-participant observer during their shift on the medicine ward. Observers will use a REDCap to record where, what, for how long and how health workers perform tasks and interactions during their shifts. Observations will take place in sets of two hours each. Approximate equal amounts of observations will be done on all medicine wards. Observations will occur on different days of the week, at different shifts during the day, and at different times during a shift to collect data from different care contexts. Baseline data of the shift is recorded at the start of the observation.

Qualitative

The qualitative arm of the study involves interviews and focus group discussions with patients, family caregivers, nurses, doctors and hospital administrators. The FGDs and interviews will be performed in English, Twi or Ga by a local researcher experienced in qualitative research. An interview guide is used to define themes for the conversations, however, the interviewer is encouraged to follow the flow of the conversation by changing the order of topics or asking additional questions. The main themes of the interview guide are (1) the role of family participation in hospital care, (2) the perceived effect of family participation, (3) the barriers and facilitators for family participation in hospital care, and (4) the opportunities for improving family caregiver participation in hospital care.

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)
• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

This study includes the patients, family caregivers, nurses, doctors, ward assistants, and hospital administrators admitted/caring/working in the medicine wards of Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.

You may qualify if:

• Population
• Patient: Admitted to the ward (in-patient)
• Family caregiver: caregiver providing care at the bedside of the patient on the ward
• Environment: Admitted to a medicine ward of KBTH
• Admission time: Admitted in the last 48 hours
• Adult: ≥18 years

You may not qualify if:

• Admission time: Planned discharge or transfer within the first 24 hours of admission
• Child: \<18 years
• Previously enrolled in this study arm
• No consent given
• Time and Motion
• Population: Nurses and doctors
• Environment: Working in a medicine wards of KBTH
• Population: \<6 months of work experience on a medicine ward of KBTH
• Previously enrolled in this study arm
• No consent given
• Qualitative (interviews and focus group discussions)
• Population
• Patient: Admitted to the ward (in-patient)
• Family caregiver: Caregiver providing care at the bedside of the patient on the ward
• Health workers: Nurses, doctors and ward assistants

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Michele van Vugt: lead
• Amsterdam UMC, location AMC: collaborator
• Korle Bu Teaching Hospital: collaborator
• University of Ghana Medical School: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

Korle Bu Teaching Hospital

Accra, Ghana

Location

Study Design

• Study Type: observational
• Observational Model: OTHER
• Time Perspective: PROSPECTIVE
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Professor

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: October 7, 2024
• First Posted: October 9, 2024
• Study Start: February 12, 2024
• Primary Completion: May 24, 2024
• Study Completion: May 24, 2024
• Last Updated: October 9, 2024

Record last verified: 2024-10

Locations

GH (1)