Catharina Gillsjö
School of Health Sciences
Catharina Gillsjö
Associate Professor of Nursing
Mobile Integrated Care is a care model introduced in Skaraborg (a former County now merged into the Västra Götalands region) that has developed into a national role model. In the research project " Mobile Integrated Care at Home in Skaraborg", researchers will study how patients and next of kin´s experience Mobile Integrated Care.
Physicians and health care providers work in teams
Mobile Integrated Care has three components, and in this research project it is the third component, Mobile Integrated Physician, that will be studied "Mobile Integrated Care in Skaraborg".
The project was recently granted funds of SEK 2.8 million to study "Simpler and better solutions for complex issues in healthcare" from the Kamprad Family Foundation. The funds are used for further studies on the experience of receiving Mobile Integrated Care at home. The integrated care team consists of a physician and nurses from primary health care, rehab and social services staff from the local municipality's health and social care.
The feeling of well-being and sense of home
Before patients become part of the Mobile Integrated Care programme, they and their next of kin are interviewed and required to take surveys rating their feeling of well-being and how being treated at home affects the patient’s sense of home. Interviews and surveys will be conducted continuously throughout the study to assess changes relating to wellbeing and sense of home.
A previous study assessing patients’ and next of kin’s experiences of Mobile Integrated Care has been carried out. In this study additional interviews were made with integrated care physicians and nurses on their experience from providing care to patients in a Mobile Integrated Care programme. Preliminary results in the study indicate that the Mobile Integrated Care programme promotes patients’ feeling of safety and security.
Cross-border care
The aim of the current project is to create an understanding for the impact the care model has on the well-being of patients and their next of kin over time. There is a real possibility that patients feel their privacy intruded on when the health care team enter their home. This may lead to a feeling of losing the sense of home in the home and is the reason why it is important to study patients’ experience of well-being and sense of home within this care model.
Another theme in this study is to examine to what extent patients and next of kin experience that they can take part in the care process and influence how the care is developed and performed. To determine if the Mobile Integrated Care model meets the expected goal of creating a seamless cross-border care for the patient?
– The results from the study will be shared regionally, nationally, and internationally. We hope to contribute to a positive development of the quality of health care. This is about health, quality of life, and the feeling of having a purpose, says project leader Catharina Gillsjö.
Three years' duration
The project is a joint effort and includes Vårdsamverkan, Skaraborg. It was launched in February 2020 and will continue for three years. A PhD student, Lina Hovlin, has been recruited to be part of the research team with Catharina Gillsjö and Jenny Hallgren, Senior Lecturers of Nursing at the University of Skövde. The project is in part carried out in collaboration with researchers from the University of Rhode Island in the United States.