April 19, 2022

Nursing homes play a unique dual role in the long-term care continuum, serving as a place where people receive needed health care and a place they call home. Ineffective responses to the complex challenges of nursing home care have resulted in a system that often fails to ensure the well-being and safety of nursing home residents. The devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on nursing home residents and staff has renewed attention to the long-standing weaknesses that impede the provision of high-quality nursing home care.

With support from a coalition of sponsors, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine formed the Committee on the Quality of Care in Nursing Homes to examine how the United States delivers, finances, regulates, and measures the quality of nursing home care. The National Imperative to Improve Nursing Home Quality: Honoring Our Commitment to Residents, Families, and Staff identifies seven broad goals and supporting recommendations which provide the overarching framework for a comprehensive approach to improving the quality of care in nursing homes.

BACKGROUND: Childhood heart failure is a factor in many hospital admissions each year. It can impose a steep learning curve for parents who need to learn the key information to care for their child at home. In this study, we conducted an environmental scan to identify and assess web-based knowledge translation tools about childhood heart failure for parent audiences developed within North America. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to inventory tools publicly available to parents about childhood heart failure from popular web-based venues, assess how each tool communicates health information, and explore how they were developed. METHODS: Our search strategy included two commonly used multimedia-based platforms: two app stores (Google Play and Apple App Store) and one search engine (Advanced Google Search). Common search terms were used, and results were uploaded to Microsoft Excel for screening between 2 reviewers. The inclusion criteria for the tools were as follows: content focused on educating parents about their child’s heart failure, developed in the English language, and originating within Canada and the United States. A total of 2 reviewers screened the app store and internet search results for relevant tools. Each tool was assessed using the Suitability Assessment of Materials (SAM), a validated tool that objectively assesses the suitability of how health information is communicated to a particular audience. Key informants who were involved in tool development were identified and invited for a qualitative interview using a semistructured format to provide data about the development process. Key themes were identified in the semistructured interview process. RESULTS: Frequencies and SAM percent ratings of eligible tools were reported. No apps exist for parents relating to pediatric heart failure. Overall, 17 relevant internet tools were identified, and their suitability was assessed for the parent audience. Most tools scored well in layout and type, but they scored lower in readability and graphics. Qualitative interviews with key informants revealed three key themes: timely and introductory knowledge, credible and trustworthy knowledge, and challenges and evolution in knowledge. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first environmental scan looking for parent tools relating to childhood heart failure in Canada and the United States. Findings from this study reveal that there are no apps on this topic and there is a small number of tools for parents on the internet (n=17). Using the SAM, no tools scored in the superior range, and further work in knowledge translation strategies needs to be done in this area to improve more effective education to parents and caregivers who have a child with heart failure. These findings will inform the development of a new resource on children’s heart failure that targets parents and caregiver audiences.