1. The process, outcomes, and challenges of feasibility studies conducted in partnership with stakeholders: A health intervention for women survivors of intimate partner violence
- Author
-
Kelly Scott-Storey, Jo Ann Majerovich, Colleen Varcoe, Marilyn Merritt-Gray, Marilyn J. Hodgins, Norma Dubé, Marilyn Ford-Gilboe, Judith Wuest, and Jeannie Malcolm
- Subjects
Research design ,Adult ,intimate partner violence ,partnership ,Psychological intervention ,Poison control ,Women's ,Intervention ,Community ,Feasibility study ,Health intervention ,Quality of life (healthcare) ,Nursing ,Intervention (counseling) ,Medicine ,Humans ,Survivors ,General Nursing ,intervention ,Primary health care ,business.industry ,Battered Women ,feasibility study ,Social Support ,Research Reports ,health ,Middle Aged ,Community Health Nursing ,3. Good health ,Intimate partner violence ,women's ,primary health care ,Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care ,Health ,General partnership ,Spouse Abuse ,Quality of Life ,community ,Feasibility Studies ,Women's Health ,Female ,business ,Partnership ,Knowledge transfer - Abstract
Feasibility studies play a crucial role in determining whether complex, community-based interventions should be subject to efficacy testing. Reports of such studies often focus on efficacy potential but less often examine other elements of feasibility, such as acceptance by clients and professionals, practicality, and system integration, which are critical to decisions for proceeding with controlled efficacy testing. Although stakeholder partnership in feasibility studies is widely suggested to facilitate the research process, strengthen relevance, and increase knowledge transfer, little is written about how this occurs or its consequences and outcomes. We began to address these gaps in knowledge in a feasibility study of a health intervention for women survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) conducted in partnership with policy, community and practitioner stakeholders. We employed a mixed-method design, combining a single-group, pre-post intervention study with 52 survivors of IPV, of whom 42 completed data collection, with chart review data and interviews of 18 purposefully sampled participants and all 9 interventionists. We assessed intervention feasibility in terms of acceptability, demand, practicality, implementation, adaptation, integration, and efficacy potential. Our findings demonstrate the scope of knowledge attainable when diverse elements of feasibility are considered, as well as the benefits and challenges of partnership. The implications of diverse perspectives on knowledge transfer are discussed. Our findings show the importance of examining elements of feasibility for complex community-based health interventions as a basis for determining whether controlled intervention efficacy testing is justified and for refining both the intervention and the research design. © 2015 The Authors. Research in Nursing & Health published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
- Published
- 2015