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Table 2 AIM themes and sub-themes derived from interviews with Praxis attendees

From: RE-AIMing conferences: evaluating the adoption, implementation and maintenance of the Rick Hansen Institute’s Praxis 2016

Themes and definitions

Subthemes and definitions

Exemplar quotes

Implementation:

• At the setting level, implementation refers to the intervention agents’ fidelity to the various elements of an intervention’s protocol, including consistency of delivery as intended and the time and cost of the intervention

• At the individual level, implementation refers to clients’ use of the intervention strategies

Perceptions around the purpose of the conference: attendees’ understandings and perceptions of the purpose of the conference

Lack of clear understanding beforehand: there was a lack of clear understanding of the goals of the conference before attendees arrived

• “… perhaps, to be improved, is getting people more focused before they arrived so that they’re really aware of what the format was going tobe

• “I didn’t receive any material about the content of the conference until immediately before, so I assumed that the conference was largely going to be about presentations [and therefore] I scheduled their work time to be present for the presentations [and was] absent for the working sessions. The value I could have added, I wasn’t actually at the meeting for that

After attendees’ perceptions were clarified: there were two perceived goals that those who attended the conference felt Praxis was trying to achieve:

(1) creating collaborative networks

(2) developing solutions to overcome challenges

• “Well, I think they were trying to achieve the collaborative conversations and engagement from all of the stakeholders

• “Oh, well I took Praxis to be actually trying to come up with solutions to the problems that we know exist

Working table sessions (interactive environment): the working table sessions both facilitated and inhibited the two conference goals

Aspects of the interactive environment related to networking: aspects of the working table sessions that either facilitated or inhibited the conference goal of networking

• “It was the first conference I’d ever been at where we were seated at particular tables, which I think actually was a good idea because it breaks up groups that might attend conference together and it forces you to mix with other people

• “… I would’ve preferred the opportunity to move around instead of just staying at one table … But if the real goal was to increase the communication and understanding between stakeholders, it would have been good to shake that up more

Aspects of the interactive environment related to creating solutions: aspects of the working table sessions that either facilitated or inhibited the conference goal of creating solutions

• “But if they’re trying to get solutions, they probably would’ve gotten a lot further faster if people had been grouped with [similar roles],right?

• “… I mean, one of the challenges was a lot of the problems are so big and systemic that in 5 min you can’t really come up with a good solution

• “At my table everybody was engaged … I thought the conversation was just flying really well, where people were just putting their ideas out there, nobody was really interrupting anybody either

Maintenance:

• The extent to which a programme or policy becomes institutionalised or part of the routine organisational practices and policies

• Within the RE-AIM framework, maintenance also applies at the individual level

• At the individual level, maintenance has been defined as the long-term effects of a programme on outcomes after 6 or more months after the most recent intervention contact

Future directions: Attendees spoke of hopes, recommendations and concerns post-Praxis; their expectations for the future impact of Praxis

Hopes for the future: people had expectations of how Praxis would change the spinal cord injury field

• “… [having] the goal to better understand the problem and recognize that we’ll all go back to our areas of influence with a better understanding of the problem, [that’s] probably a bit more effective if we’re trying to bring about change. Then something like that is helpful

• “So, having a funder like RHI to come in and say, ‘these are all great ideas, but how are we actually going to implement them … could be for who knows what … that’s what I hope comes out of it is that there’s a focus from RHI to really drive this collaborate process that they started at Praxis

Recommendations for ensuring Praxis has impact: these are proposed solutions that attendees have post-Praxis to make the action items actually happen

• “… an email of who was doing what and not just of what was happening … should be able to offer assistance … would be a good way of including everyone from the conference

• “I think what the whole conference needs to do is really take all of the information from the meeting and people’s comments and develop some very short term, concrete action items

• “… value of creating, fostering, supporting real partnerships amongst the stakeholders that are interested in providing treatment, innovative treatment options for the paralysis community, I think that’s going to be necessary is we’re going to get there [goals of the conference]”

Concerns about impact: attendees were sceptical that there would be no real change over the long term

• “… we had good discussion, we came up with some good ideas, some good plans. But we were a little frustrated, that you know, basically going to write a paper, report back and that’s going to be it

• “I think the conference to me highlighted a number of challenges, but I didn’t actually hear solutions to the challenges or new approaches to solving the problem

Continuing to bring people together: attendees 1expressed a need to continue to bring people together post-conference in different sorts of ways

Need for leadership: attendees described a need for leadership post-Praxis to make the action items happen

• “Having a funder like RHI, or whoever, to come in and say, ‘these are all great ideas, but how are we actually going to implement them?’

• “… from my perspective moving forward, there was an identifiable person or group of people that the whole community could look to and say, ‘oh we just have to talk to them and they could get us to the right information’ and ‘we can talk to them and find out about this new research project’

Value in getting diverse groups together long term: attendees described the value of getting diverse groups together (face-to-face) to move the SCI field forward after Praxis

• “Communication is always gonna be the critical push. So, I hope Praxis is the beginning of a push for Rick Hansen [Institute] to do more of these types of groups

• “… people will have to get together to have a bigger force … that’s one thing that was named to have more, you know, research groups or whatever, work more together to join forces and make things happen faster

  1. Headings are set in bold