Background
Elements of best practice goal-setting in rehabilitation include interdisciplinary teamwork, shared decision-making, setting specific and meaningful goals, and action planning, feedback, and goal review. These elements are inconsistently implemented in clinical practice. This study aimed to evaluate the implementation of a co-designed goal-setting package (including training modules with lived experience videos, case conference restructure, goal-boards, a key worker model, and a goal-setting workbook) to improve best-practice goal-setting in five rehabilitation services.
Method
Medical record audits, focus groups and lived-experience interviews were conducted pre-implementation (audits n=132, focus groups =5, interviews n=64) and post-implementation (audits n=130, focus groups =7, interviews n=56) and used to evaluate the outcome and process of implementing the co-designed goal-setting package. Quantitative data were analysed descriptively, qualitative data were inductively coded to the RE-AIM and Theoretical Domains Framework.
Results
Following implementation, two inpatient sites significantly improved their common goal focus (p<0.01); these sites also demonstrated a significant increase in people reporting they received copies of their rehabilitation goals (p=<0.001). Four sites improved action planning, feedback and review, and 3 sites enhanced their specificity of goal-setting. Several key factors impacted the reach, adoption, and implementation of the goal-setting package; these included the environment and processes, social influences, clinician knowledge/skill and professional roles and identity.
Conclusions
A rehabilitation team is a complex environment and the different teams adopted different approaches to enhance the goal-setting process with varying levels of success. The most successful mode for implementing interdisciplinary person-centred goal-setting was a team-based approach centred around the case conference format.
Relevance
This study highlights that best practice person-centred goal-setting can be achieved but the success of the implementation is variable across rehabilitation settings and may be influenced by the team functioning and context.