NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Gwich'in Settlement Area, Sahtu Settlement Area, Dehcho Region, North Slave Region, South Slave Region, Qikiqtaaluk Region

Tags: health, health care, health care evaluation

Objective(s): To describe current patterns of health care practice pertaining to H. pylori infection and related diseases, and to identify obstacles to best practices for managing this infection.

Project Description: The practitioner consultation project aims to engage targeted health care practitioners to describe current patterns of health care practice pertaining to H. pylori infection and related diseases, and to identify obstacles to best practices for managing this infection. Initial testing and treatment for H. pylori infection usually occurs in the primary care setting.The research team will target primary care practitioners serving communities in the Northwest Territories (NWT), along with any identified specialists who provide care to patients referred for H. pylori-associated conditions in this region. Given the limited health services available in the NWT, primary care physicians are not necessarily the first health care providers to see patients in a clinic setting in the north. For this reason, the team will target nurses as well as physicians for participation. With the help of health care partners, the research team will compile a list with contact information of practitioners who are likely to meet the following eligibility requirement: worked as a health care practitioner anywhere in the NWT for at least 6 months. The research team will also recruit participants at meetings of health care practitioners in the NWT. Busy schedules and demanding workloads of health care practitioners combined with the considerable distances between service locations in the Arctic makes in-person interviews an impractical option for some of the participants the team will invite to participate in this project. In comparison to questionnaires administered by mail, telephone interviews have higher response rates on average, since practitioners may often lose surveys in paperwork and are more likely to consider mail-in surveys to be a low priority in their workload. For this reason, the research team will conduct interviews by telephone, as well as in person at meetings of health care practitioners. Before calling participants, a letter will be sent by mail to explain the purpose of the study. Interviewers for this project will receive training from experienced CANHelp interviewers in techniques for conducting interviews to obtain high quality, accurate responses to structured and open-ended questions. Trained interviewers will conduct interviews using an introductory script to obtain informed consent. During the interviews, interviewers will enter responses to structured questions using computerized entry into an Access database on a laptop or tablet. Research assistants will transcribe recorded responses to open-ended questions using computerized data entry. Following transcription of responses to interview questions, the research assistant will thematically code open-ended responses and enter these codes in an Access database. Data analysts will tabulate and describe patterns of responses obtained during interviews. Data analysts will develop a report based on the findings of this study to inform the related aims of the CANHelp Working Group. Participants will have an opportunity to contribute to a project that will generate information to improve how H. pylori infection is managed clinically in northern Canada and inform policy analysis aimed at improving relevant health care policy at the health care system level. Through this project, participants will have access to information and expert guidance that may be of value to them in their patient care activities. Participants will have an opportunity to receive a report of the study results if they are interested. A copy of the report will also be available on our website at http://www.canhelpworkinggroup.ca/. Additionally, the research team plan to communicate the results of the study through consultations, clinical rounds, and meetings or conferences attended by the Northern health care practitioners. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from January 25, 2018 to December 31, 2018.