Diagnostic Work through Evidence-Based Guidelines: Avoiding Gaps Between Development and Implementation of a Guideline for Problem Behaviour in Elderly Care

Esther van Loon*, Teun Zuiderent-Jerak, Roland Bal

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

    Abstract

    Diagnostic work is the reflexive work of figuring out what issues are at stake and determining the scope for action. This work is not generally accommodated by evidence-based guidelines, which generally promote a uniform, predefined approach to solving healthcare problems that risk narrowing the opportunities for diagnostic work in healthcare practice. Consequently, guidelines are often criticised as too general to solve situated, individual healthcare problems and gaps between guidelines and their implementation are often reported. The Netherlands has developed a guideline for problem behaviour in elderly care, explicitly designed for diagnostic work, thus stimulating a situated approach. Relational problem behaviour is highly embedded in its context. The guideline stimulates diagnostic work, which helps to unravel problem behaviour and is opening alternatives in elderly care. Diagnostic work does not transfer guideline development problems to healthcare practice, but simply structures the decision-making process without giving a predefined answer. Diagnostic work is thus important to consider in order to avoid a gap between guideline development and implementation.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)153-176
    Number of pages24
    JournalScience as Culture
    Volume23
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2014

    Funding

    We would like to thank all the respondents for their time and insights into their work and thoughts. Furthermore, we thank the anonymous reviewers for their comments, and colleagues in the Health Care Governance group for their feedback and improvements to an earlier draft of this article. Thanks to Sarah-Sue Slaghuis for contributing to the data collection. This research was funded by ZonMw, The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (grant number: 53430001).

    Keywords

    • diagnostic work
    • elderly care
    • evidence-based guidelines
    • problem behaviour

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