Similarly, the APRICA 2 Projects' needs assessment revealed a need to improve secondary CVD prevention after percutaneous coronary interventions (PCIs) for a diverse urban population in the outer fringe of Western Sydney. The social determinates of educational disadvantage, underemployment, employment capacity, and below-average annual income have all been identified as impacting adversely on this populations perceived CVD risk [26]. The higher proportions of cultural groups at increased risk of CVD [20], combined with more limited transport and healthcare resources, made focusing on reducing this disadvantaged populations secondary CVD risks a priority for the APRICA 2 Project [21].
4.2. Phase 3: Behavioural and Environmental Assessment
The “behavioural and environmental assessment” facilitated identification of the specific health problems that may contribute to the target populations' quality of life, social goals or problems [10]. This phase assisted in identifying risk factors that deserve priority based on their perceived importance and changeability [10].
R-PAC Project —
The evidence that emerged from Phase 1 and 2 suggested that the inward migration of retirees to this regional community was projected to continue and the burden of progressive life limiting diseases would increase in line with population aging, impacting adversely on the capacity of the existing palliative care service to meet growing demand [17]. Many older people requiring palliative care are admitted to the acute or nursing home setting as a result of caregiver burden, living alone and/or their care needs exceed available community services [17]. End-of-life care in nursing homes is provided by nonspecialist providers, for whom care of the dying is not their primary focus making building workforce palliative care capacity a priority [27]. The behavioural issues impacting on the delivery of palliative care to older people exposed a need to increase palliative care access to people with a progressive nonmalignant life limiting illnesses and to enhance palliative care delivery in local nursing homes. Addressing the palliative care needs of older people in aged care was strongly aligned with a national agenda and the release of evidence-based guidelines [27]. Given the availability of funding to strengthen local palliative care partnerships [16], it was considered that positive changes could be achieved during the project period.
APRICA 2 Project —
The Phases 1 and 2 data revealed that the area had a higher than state average acute coronary-related admission and readmission rates [22], with people born overseas, who are overweight or obese and smokers being overrepresented [19]. Factors such as smoking, obesity, inactivity, and low uptake and completion rates of secondary prevention programs such as cardiac rehabilitation are all known to contribute to short- and long-term CVD mortality and morbidity [28]. Health professional behaviours inadvertently increasing the population's secondary CVD risks were identified during this process, including poor adherence to evidence-based guidelines and limited followup and promotion of cardiac rehabilitation programs to post, PCI patients. Compounding the populations' secondary CVD risks were environmental factors such as limited access to appropriate secondary CVD resources, participation in cardiac rehabilitation programs, carer engagement in healthcare decision-making, and secondary prevention activities in the acute care setting.
At the completion of Phase 3, the health priorities for each project were evident, which allowed for the establishment of project objectives, with clearly defined target populations (WHO), desired outcomes (WHAT), and degree to which the target population will benefit (HOW MUCH) within a specific period (WHEN).
4.3. Phase 4: Educational and Ecological Assessment
An “educational and ecological assessment” facilitates categorising the predisposing, enabling or reinforcing factors contributing to the behaviours previously identified [10]. This phase facilitates systematic identification of health problems and associated risk factors that deserve priority based on their perceived importance and changeability, whilst considering the effective allocation of limited resources [10]. Importantly, this stage focuses on the development of the intervention to address the identified health problem. Having the critical reference groups assess and ranked the predisposing, reinforcing or enabling factors helps drive the change management processes [29, 30].
4.4. Predisposing Factors
R-PAC Project —
Predisposing factors ranked highest as acting to either motivate or inhibit the delivery of a palliative approach in local nursing homes, included aged care personnels palliative care awareness, knowledge, competencies, and confidence; access to the specialist palliative care for residents with complex palliative care needs; the number of general practitioners (GPs) prepared to review residents in local nursing homes; residents' and families' awareness of a palliative approach and involvement in care planning [31].
APRICA 2 Project —
The highest ranking predisposing factors for the APRIC 2 population were identified as being a pervading sense of being “cured” following PCI [32], inadequate understanding of the need for secondary prevention following PCI, wide diversity in PCI nursing care practices across institutions; inadequate communication between acute and primary care providers, low referral rates to secondary prevention programs, and poor uptake and completion of secondary CVD prevention programs by patients undergoing PCIs.
4.5. Reinforcing Factors
R-PAC Project —
In the aged care setting, residents, family members, other health care providers, peers, and educators play a role in reinforcing positive and negative behaviours through rewards, feedback, and punishments [10]. The reinforcing factors considered most important and amenable to change included the need to increase age care personnel's awareness of the specialist palliative care referral process, develop appropriate systems for GPs to be routinely engaged in resident's end-of-life care planning, provide residents and families with information about a palliative approach, and increase the visibility and “normalisation” of a palliative approach in aged care [29].
APRICA 2 Project —
The reinforcing factors ranked highest in terms of importance and changeability included the lack of national, state, or local PCI evidence-based nursing care guidelines; no linkage between PCI nursing care delivery in acute care and secondary CVD prevention programs; patients' limited participation in secondary CVD prevention programs.
4.6. Enabling Factors
R-PAC Project —
Whereas enabling factors such as: accessibility, availability and skills impacted on the aged care personnel's ability to deliver a palliative approach were the most highly ranked factors. Further analysis revealed that these enabling factors included aged care personnel's capacity to: effectively communicate clinical findings to external health professionals; effectively advocate on behalf of the residents; utilise a common palliative care language, both within aged care and with external health professionals; arrange timely access to palliative care equipment; refer the resident to a specialist palliative care team; acquire greater palliative care competencies and confidence; and access palliative care education opportunities locally [29]. A range of enabling factors were also acting to limit residents' access to palliative care as a result of: a lower ratio of registered nurses as a proportion of the total aged care workforce; aged care personnels limited palliative care knowledge, skills and confidence; under utilisation of the specialist palliative care team; difficulty accessing timely and appropriate GP input, specialist support, medications and equipment; and residents' and families' limited awareness and understanding of a palliative approach [29, 30]. Acknowledging the availability and accessibility of resources along with the competencies required to implement the intervention ensures that the highest ranked factors, in terms of importance and changeability become the focus of the intervention [10].
APRICA 2 Project —
Health professionals' willingness to engage in and lead CVD quality improvement activities; the encouragement and support provided by families/carers to enable the patient to reduce their CVD risk; and capacity of the peak cardiovascular organisations to promote a national PCI quality improvement agenda, were identified as being critical enabling factors for change. Integrating relevant data into the Model enabled a comprehensive picture of the cardiovascular health needs of an urban population to be identified and guided identification of the action required, including: development national PCI evidence-based nursing guidelines integrating secondary prevention [32, 33]; increasing uptake of cardiac rehabilitation post PCIs; informing patients and carers of available social support(s), reinforcing the importance of secondary prevention and details on accessing local CVD secondary prevention information and programs. As risk modification is dependent upon the individual's perception of risk, identifying and ranking these factors was critical to shaping the APRICA Project intervention, in Phase 4 [33].