Maandag 27 februari 2023
A joint PhD degree research project between KU Leuven and the University of Basel
Maria Jose Mendieta is a medical doctor from Ecuador and full-time PhD student at the University of Basel and KU Leuven. Currently, she is a doctoral researcher within the MARIE SKLODOWSKA-CURIE EU Horizon 2020 research program “TRANS-SENIOR Innovative Research Consortium”. She works under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Sabina De Geest from University of Basel and Prof. Dr. Geert Goderis from KU Leuven.
As part of her PhD, she collaborates in the INSPIRE project which aims to develop, implement and evaluate a community-based integrated care model for home-dwelling older adults in the Canton Basel-Landschaft in Switzerland. This is a three-phase implementation science project designed following the recommendations of the Medical Research Council Framework for the development and evaluation of complex interventions. The first phase, the development of the INSPIRE care model was completed after a review of literature, a contextual analysis and the involvement of different stakeholders.
Maria Jose’s PhD-project focuses in the second phase: feasibility of the INSPIRE care model in the Information and Advice Center of Leimental. During this phase, she aims to assess the implementation of the integrated care model by: a) monitoring respondents to the outreach strategies and describing the IBS visitors (e.g., number of visitors, reason for appointment) using a descriptive design; and by b) assessing implementation outcomes (i.e., adoption, acceptability, feasibility, and fidelity) from the perspective of older adults and their informal caregivers, the IBS nurse and social worker, as well as assess implementation processes related to interprofessional collaboration using a parallel convergent mixed-methods design.
To meet these aims, she has collected qualitative and quantitative data from 12 older adults 75+, 8 informal caregivers, a nurse and a social worker delivering the intervention and 21 external health and social care collaborators. At the moment, Maria Jose is submerged in the analysis of the collected data. The results of this phase will serve 1) to inform the scientific community and INSPIRE stakeholders about challenges in the implementation of community-based integrated care models for frail home-dwelling older adults; and 2) to make adaptations to the intervention and the implementation strategies before moving to the effectiveness evaluation phase.
