Readiness for Change

This project focuses on the development of a decision support tool to assist individuals and organizations in identifying readiness assessment measures that are valid, reliable, and appropriate for health care settings. By making this tool publicly available to implementation teams, we aim to facilitate the routine incorporation of readiness assessments in practice as an early step taken to plan for high-quality implementation.

This study used a systematic, multi-step approach to develop and test the readiness for change decision support tool. Key steps of tool development included:

Phase 1: Key measures for assessing organizational readiness for change were identified from a recently completed systematic review. Included measures were those developed for health care settings (e.g., acute care, public health, mental health) and that have been deemed valid and reliable.

Phase 2: Study investigators and field experts were engaged in a mapping exercise to categorize individual items of included measures according to four key readiness constructs from an existing framework developed by Holt and colleagues (2010).

Phase 3: A stakeholder panel of potential end users from different disciplines and sectors was consulted to determine the feasibility, relevance, and likelihood to recommend score of the selected measures.

Phase 4: Findings from phases 1-3 informed the development of the decision support tool prototype. The decision support tool prototype underwent rigorous usability testing with potential end users to understand user interactions and experiences with the tool. The final tool is publicly available online at no cost to end users.

To access the Ready, Set, Change! online decision support tool, click here.

To learn more about the development process of the Ready, Set, Change! decision support tool, refer to the complete and open-access protocol paper here: http://www.implementationscience.com/content/9/1/56