Narrative reports to monitor and evaluate the integration of pharmacists into family practice settings.
OBJECTIVE
Narratives can capture unfolding events and negotiation of roles and thus can help to evaluate interventions in interdisciplinary health care teams. We describe a practical qualitative method, the narrative report, and its role in evaluating implementation research.


METHODS
We used narrative reports as a means to evaluate an intervention to integrate pharmacists into group family practices. The pharmacists submitted 63 written narrative reports during a 1-year period. Our interdisciplinary research team analyzed these reports to monitor the progress of the implementation, to identify pharmacists' needs, and to capture elements of the integration process.


RESULTS
The monthly narrative reports allowed the research team to document early learning and calibrate the program in terms of clinical support, adapting roles, and realigning expectations. The reports helped the research team stay in tune with practice-related implementation challenges, and the preliminary summary of narrative findings provided a forum for sharing innovations among the integrating pharmacists.


CONCLUSIONS
The narrative report can be a successful qualitative tool to track and evaluate the early stages of an intervention in the context of evolving primary health care teams.
Pottie
Kevin
K
Elisabeth Bruyère Research Institute, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. kpottie@uottawa.ca
Haydt
Susan
S
Farrell
Barbara
B
Dolovich
Lisa
L
Sellors
Connie
C
Hogg
William
W
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D006123:Group Practice; D006284:Health Plan Implementation / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D033183:Interdisciplinary Communication; D054539:Medication Therapy Management / Q000458:organization & administration; D009864:Ontario; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D010348:Patient Care Team / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010595:Pharmacists; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000379:methods / Q000458:organization & administration*; D017064:Process Assessment, Health Care / Q000379:methods