Acceptability, Barriers and Facilitators of a Communication Tool in Hospital Settings

The presence of appropriate systems to promote good communication within the care team is one of the ten important characteristics identified for effective interdisciplinary work. However, the current communication systems at the Eastern Townships University Health and Social Services Centre of the Sherbrooke University Hospital (SUH), an hospital setting in Sherbrooke (Quebec, Canada), are numerous, scattered and difficult to identify quickly. The bedside magnetized posters were developed to address this issue. The use of this kind of tool should improve teamwork, communication, and patient care. As the bedside magnetized posters are now well established on the stroke and geriatric units at the SUH, it is essential to evaluate their acceptability by staff members. In addition, identifying the barriers and facilitators to their use will support the team for eventual deployment in other care environments at the SUH.

The objectives of the study are: 1. To describe the acceptability of magnetic posters by staff members in the Neurology Department - Stroke Unit, where they are already well established, and in the Geriatric Department, where they are newly introduced. 2. To identify barriers and facilitators to the use of magnetic posters to assist the team in an eventual deployment in other care environments at SUH. Methods A mixed sequential design will be used (quantitative, qualitative and observational). The study population will be staff working with inpatients in the neurology-stroke and geriatric units of SUH. Staff meeting the eligibility criteria will be invited to complete an electronic survey on the acceptability of the magnetic posters. The survey will consist of 15 closed questions relating to the use of the magnetic posters (e.g. frequency of poster consultation) and its acceptability (e.g. ease of use, poster content), one open question to gather suggestions for improving the tool and 6 socio-demographic questions. The survey will take approximately 10-15 minutes to complete, and responses will be recorded on the Research Centre on Aging's RedCap server for later analysis. Also, a member of the research team will carry out observations on the neurology-stroke and geriatric units for one half-day, in order to collect data concerning, among other things, how the posters are used (e.g. where are the posters available to staff, which posters are used) and the characteristics of the patients for whom the posters are used. Finally, two semi-structured group interviews, one for the neurology-stroke unit and one for the geriatric unit, will be facilitated by a member of the research team. Each group will be made up of 6 to 8 employees from a variety of professions, in order to be representative of the population under study and will last 30-60 minutes. The focus groups will address the facilitators and barriers to poster use for each respective unit. Discussions will be recorded and verbatims will be kept for later analysis.