Risk Instrument for Screening in the Community (RISC): Cross Cultural Perspectives
- 1 University College Cork, Ireland
- 2 Northern Health and Social Care Trust, Ireland
- 3 University of Western Australia, Australia
- 4 IDIAP Jordi Gol, Spain
- 5 University of Porto, Portugal
- 6 National University of Ireland, Ireland
Abstract
Older people are at an increased risk of developing multiple co-morbidities causing subsequent cognitive, functional decline and frailty and increasing the risk of adverse healthcare outcomes. Public Health Nurses (PHNs), geriatricians and researchers developed the Risk Instrument for Screening in the Community (RISC) to record the presence of problems, severity (mild, moderate, severe) of concerns and caregiver networks' ability to manage the patient across three domains: mental state, activities of daily living and medical state. The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of healthcare professionals who had used the RISC with community-dwelling older adults, between countries. Five focus groups (n = 28) were conducted in five countries (Australia, Northern Ireland, Portugal, Republic of Ireland and Spain). Four main themes were identified from participants' experiences using the RISC: 'Tool Usability'; 'Benefits for Patients and Carers'; 'Operational Challenges'; and 'Recommendations for Improvement'. Some cultural differences were found between participants with regards to terminologies such as 'caregiver network' and 'insight' and expectation in relation to caring. Disciplinary differences were identified related to different conceptualisations of health. The RISC offers an innovative approach to identify and score risk in community dwelling older adults. However, further research is necessary to reflect cultural and disciplinary norms.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3844/ijrnsp.2015.42.50
Copyright: © 2015 Patricia Leahy-Warren, Elizabeth Weathers, Marina Lupari, Sadie Campbell, Roger Clarnette, Francesc Orfila, Christine Fitzgerald, Constança Paúl, Eileen O’Herlihy, Nicola Cornally, Rónán O’Caoimh, Mary Rose Day, Helen Mulcahy and William Molloy. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
- 3,743 Views
- 1,946 Downloads
- 3 Citations
Download
Keywords
- Older Adults
- Frailty
- Risk Assessment
- Primary Care