The following is a summary of “Barriers and enablers to implementing interprofessional primary care teams: a narrative review of the literature using the consolidated framework for implementation research,” published in the January 2024 issue of Primary Care by Grant et al.
Canada’s interprofessional primary care teams, meant to boost access and quality, have failed to match the escalating challenges. Using an implementation framework, researchers conducted a retrospective study to categorize and describe barriers and enablers to team implementation in primary care.
They prioritized systematic reviews and evidence syntheses on Ovid MEDLINE for a targeted search using predefined terms. A relevant grey literature was identified through ad hoc Google searches and manual exploration of health organization websites. The Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) was employed to categorize barriers and enablers into five domains: team implementation features, government, health authorities, and health organizations; third team characteristics; fourth team members’ characteristics; and lastly, implementation process.
The result showed that 19 of 435 articles meeting criteria revealed barriers and enablers categorized into CFIR’s Characteristics of the Team and Government, Health Authorities, and Health Organizations domains. Team domain themes included team leadership, clear governance, and technology for collaboration. Government domain themes covered remuneration, policy, and interprofessional education. Features of Team Implementation highlighted the importance of data and stable funding. Positive perspectives, flexibility, and support were noted in Characteristics of Team Members. Process of Implementation discussed shared leadership and human resources planning.
They concluded that CFIR analysis pinpoints hurdles and drivers for interprofessional primary care teams, guiding local implementation for better access and quality.
Source: bmcprimcare.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12875-023-02240-0