The ROAM II Study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Realistic rehabilitation for Outdoor Activities and Mobility in care homes: The ROAM II Study
IRAS ID
253567
Contact name
Amanda L King
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 10 months, 11 days
Research summary
Care home residents should be supported to participate in meaningful activities in their preferred places, including outdoors. The health and well-being benefits of spending time in outdoor environments are well-evidenced, however, many care home residents lack opportunities to get outside. Due to the lack of research and knowledge about outdoor use in UK care homes, the previous realist study (ROAM) explored the circumstances under which residents get outside, how, why and to what extent. Consistent with the broader literature, inclement weather, lack of staffing availability, inaccessible outdoor spaces and high resident support needs were significant barriers to outdoor use. Nonetheless, there was evidence to suggest that care staff reasoning, values and motivation were highly influential for outdoor practices - given time and opportunities to reflect, plus encouragement, many staff were able to identify practical and feasible ways of overcoming challenges. For the follow-on study, ROAM II, a research occupational therapist and a care home manager co-researcher will use Appreciative Action Research with care home staff, residents and relatives. The aim of this collaboration will be to design, implement and evaluate (co-produce) an outdoor programme tailored to each practice setting. Eligible care homes are those within Nottinghamshire considered by the study team to be 'research ready' and to have accessible outdoor spaces. The study will be conducted in three care homes for up to 12 months. Up to 91 residents, 106 staff and 28 relatives will be recruited. Resident and care staff outcome measures will be collected at baseline and study endpoint. Environment and resident descriptive information will be collected using questionnaires. Data generation activities involving care staff, residents and relatives will include questionnaires, observations, interviews, focus groups and action learning sets. To provide theory driven explanations about the outdoor programme, all data will be interpreted within a realist evaluation framework. The qualitative and quantitative data sets will be analysed independently and then synthesised for the realist analysis.
REC name
London - Camden & Kings Cross Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/LO/0641
Date of REC Opinion
31 May 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion