Samantha Welke
Project Manager
Affiliation: Central Adelaide Local Health Network
Samantha is a project manager at Central Northern Adelaide Renal & Transplant Service (CNARTS). She has provided a snapshot of the project on behalf of her team which includes; Dr Shilpanjali Jesudason (Principle Investigator and research supervisor) and Gorjana Radsic (Research Officer).
Q&A with Samantha
What interested you about patient reported measures research and PRMs projects?
PRMs are integral to consumer focussed service delivery. They assist and direct clinicians and health service managers in how to develop service models which best meet patient needs and achieve the best healthcare outcomes. PRMs provides a consistent and comparative source of information about how the service is improving over time and can be co-designed to provide an important avenue for hearing the needs of under-represented consumer groups.
What is your biggest achievement in relation to patient reported measures research, or the application of research into practice?
The progression towards kidney failure can be a medially and psychologically turbulent period. The optimal pathway for patients includes individualised and specialised tertiary care with consistent primary care, for holistic coordinated care and support. However, more than 50% of CNARTS patients commence dialysis unplanned, during a stressful emergency hospital admission.
In 2022 CNARTS undertook 75 one-to-one interviews with stakeholders, including 27 patients, to collect data on the consumer experience and journey through CNARTS services; followed by another consumer feedback survey of 58 patients about engagement with primary care in the pre and post commencement of dialysis phases of care. The rich qualitative data collected revealed the need for improved consistency in patient support, education and empowerment and improved GP/primary care collaboration.
Applying research translation, CNARTS implemented a range of service model changes and developments to improve primary – tertiary care integration and the patient experience. This includes the co-designed, individualised, educational resource for patients: The Preparing for Dialysis Toolkit and a patient reported experience measures for patients who have recently commenced dialysis. A number of other projects are planned for the application of research into practice.
Other important work underway in the Central Northern Adelaide Renal & Transplantation Service includes development of a Measuring Needle Fear Tool (MNF) and a condition specific patient outcome measure (PROM) for patients who are commencing haemodialysis. The tool will assist patients and clinicians in identifying risks for needle fear and allow supports and strategies to be offered before the start of dialysis, with a patient measure of the effectiveness of these strategies and supports. This specific research project is led by Gorjana Radsic
For more information about this project, contact gorjana.radisic@sa.gov.au.
How do you approach collaboration with consumers, carers and community? Or how do think we can work together to keep making advancements in this space?
With a focus on engaging the clinical team and consumers, I look for ways to increase the patient voice, and how this can be successfully translated in to service delivery. In co-design with CNARTS consumers and clinicians, a new PRMs survey for patients who have recently commenced dialysis treatment was developed and implemented in late July 2022.
The key driver for the new PRMs is consumer evaluation of the Dialysis New Start Program. The PRMs survey will continue to be developed to ensure that the PRMs are most relevant to consumers, and that it is embedded in service delivery and accessible to all consumers. Some of CNARTS consumers have now become co-investigators in current research, empowered and turning their lived experience into action to benefit others.
Contact Samantha
View other profiles in the PRMs Collaborative Conversation Series.