Project: Research project on co-created training and education to develop meal situations in care and nursing homes

Project information

Project manager
Stefan Andersson
Other project members
Anna Sandgren, Carina Persson, Erika Lagerbielke, Camilla Allert
Participating organisations
Linnaeus University, Care administration at Kalmar municipality
Financier
Kamprad Family Foundation
Timetable
March 2024 - February 2027
Subject
Health Sciences (Department of Health and Caring Sciences, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences)
Research group
Center for Collaborative Palliative Care
Knowledge Environment
Linnaeus Knowledge Environment: Sustainable Health

More about the project

In the project, researchers at Linnaeus University collaborate with the Care Administration in Kalmar to develop a model for co-creating training and education with the goal of creating high-quality meal situations for older persons (care recipients or residents) living in care homes. Good meal situations for older persons residing in care homes have proven to be important for their health and quality of life. At the same time, it is both complex and challenging to create meal situations that meet the diverse needs and preferences of care recipients living together. With the "good" meal situation as the goal, the project explores how different forms of co-creation can be used in the development and implementation of training and education for care staff in care homes. The co-created training and education are aimed at staff with different experiences, knowledge, and skills to develop strategies, abilities, and knowledge together. Participation and collaboration are central.

The project uses a participatory design and consists of three parts where both qualitative and quantitative research methods are used. In the first part of the project, training and education setups are created together with staff, care recipients, and relatives. In this step, interviews are conducted with care staff, care recipients, relatives, and managers to explore their experiences and perspectives on co-creation, the issues, and needs in meal situations, and on learning and knowledge creation. Co-creation workshops will also be held together with staff, care recipients, and relatives to identify and develop setups and content for training and education.

The perspectives and input of the groups are crucial for understanding and further development. When it comes to care recipients, they often only have the role of recipients in care. Therefore, the project studies how care recipients, based on their abilities, can participate so that their influence and empowerment are promoted.

A specific question addressed in the project is how the voices of the person can be incorporated into clinical training and education. Regarding relatives, the project studies how their knowledge and engagement can be utilized.

In the second part of the project, leaders within the organization are trained to support the implementation of training and education.

In the final part of the project, the training and education setup is evaluated through follow-up surveys with staff and residents, as well as interviews with staff. Perspectives on person-centered care among staff and care recipients will be monitored along with the staff's degree of collaboration, motivation, and problem-solving.

The project is expected to result in:

• a model for co-created clinical training and education that utilizes the experiences of care staff, care recipients, and relatives and supports the competence of care staff
• knowledge about the experiences and preferences of care recipients, relatives, and different professional groups regarding involvement in co-created clinical training and education
• knowledge about how the opportunities for influence and participation of care recipients can be promoted in the work to achieve high-quality meal situations
• knowledge about how the knowledge and engagement of relatives can be used in training and education within meal situations
• a knowledge base to better manage the complexity of meal situations in good care practice
• support for the quality work of organizations regarding meal processes
• knowledge about forms of co-creation that can likely be used in other care contexts beyond meal situations.

The project is part of the research in the research group Center for Collaborative Palliative Care and in the Linnaeus Knowledge Environment: Sustainable Health