The PET@home Toolkit: A Process Evaluation Study

Abstract

The Dutch PET@home Toolkit was developed to mitigate challenges, foster conversations, and support planning concerning pets in long-term care at home. This process evaluation study aimed to evaluate the practical application of the toolkit on four topics: (1) satisfaction; (2) relevance; (3) feasibility; and (4) integration of the PET@home Toolkit materials in home care. Outcomes may be used to improve the toolkit materials to better align with the long-term care at home setting. Accounting for data saturation, professional caregivers (N = 6), clients (N = 2), and family caregivers (N = 2) who used toolkit materials participated in semi-structured interviews. Interviews were analyzed by two researchers in ATLAS.ti using an inductive-iterative approach. The researchers reached a consensus on themes and clustering within interview topics. This led to the identification of the following themes pertaining to each interview topic: satisfaction (general impression, suggestions for improvement); relevance (awareness, planning, pet-related aspects in practice, impact on healthcare quality); feasibility (healthcare practice, competence, quantity); and implementation (digitalization, task owner, piloting, timing). Several improvements were made to toolkit materials, such as providing clearer instructions for clients in the information booklet. Participants acknowledged the toolkit could lead to better planning while mitigating potential challenges concerning pets, which may lead to longer-lasting relationships between clients and their pets.

Keywords: PET@home toolkit; companion-animals; home care; long-term care; older adults; process-evaluation.