Evaluation of an intervention aimed at improving voluntary incident reporting in hospitals.

Objectives: To assess the effectiveness of an intervention package comprising intense education, a range of reporting options, changes in report management and enhanced feedback, in order to improve incident-reporting rates and change the types of incidents reported.

Design, Setting And Participants: Non-equivalent group controlled clinical trial involving medical and nursing staff working in 10 intervention and 10 control units in four major cities and two regional hospitals in South Australia.

Main Outcome Measures: Comparison of reporting rates by type of unit, profession, location of hospital, type of incident reported and reporting mechanism between baseline and study periods in control and intervention units.

Enhancing lives through the development of a community-based participatory action research programme.

A community-based participatory action research (PAR) programme that has spanned 5 years is discussed in this article. A primary healthcare philosophy requires research in this practice setting and supports the way healthcare is ideally organized within an integrated team and supported by a community network that includes not only the healthcare workers and service providers but also the community as partners. The principles driving three PAR inquiries are described: the development of a model for prevention of workplace violence; working with clinicians towards improving wound management practice; and management of continence for community-dwelling women living with multiple sclerosis.