How the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research Can Strengthen Findings and Improve Translation of Research Into Practice: A Case Study.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES: To answer how the planned intervention was performed in routine care, which factors supported or distracted from its implementation, and how key organizational structures have been built and sustained.
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RESEARCH APPROACH: Mixed-methods process evaluation.
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SETTING: Two German outpatient cancer clinics.
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PARTICIPANTS: Purposive sampling of 297 recruited patients with gynecologic cancer, their treating oncology nurses, and their interprofessional healthcare team, and the clinical stakeholders of two different outpatient cancer clinics.
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METHODOLOGIC APPROACH: Guided by the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR), five distinct interrelated substudies were designed to evaluate intervention characteristics, inner and outer settings, characteristics of the individuals involved, and the process of implementation. Quantitative and qualitative data will be analyzed separately and then integrated into a framework analysis.
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FINDINGS: Oncology nurses found the regular process analytic sessions to be beneficial, not only for sharing their experience, but also for experiencing social support and social connectedness.
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INTERPRETATION: Key implementation facets of the nurse-led intervention will be examined systematically. The results can guide future implementation processes, which need to be tailored to interested facilities.
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IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING

The CFIR framework is well established but not yet widely applied in supportive treatment research. The current study aims to apply and combine this framework with the concept of intervention fidelity.