Barriers to and Facilitators of Task Shifting

Using a grounded theory (GT) design, this study seeks to generate a theory of how structural, personal, and administrative factors influence the implementation of task shifting in a Swiss outpatient primary care setting. The aim is to gain insights into how measures for implementing task shifting in the Swiss outpatient sector should be designed for maximum success. Data collection and analysis will follow the process of theoretical sampling central to grounded theory, where the analysis of any given piece of data informs the collection of the next. Participants will be recruited from an ongoing study within the Health2040 project and data sources will include ethnographic observations in doctor’s offices as well as semi-structured or narrative interviews. All data will be analysed according to the three-stage process of open, axial and selective coding put forward by Strauss and Corbin (1990). The process of data collection, analysis and interpretation will continue until theoretical saturation can be observed and a substantive theory of success factors for task shifting can be developed. This theory will then be related to previous research, which will add to the validity of the findings.