Poster Presentation Australian and New Zealand Society for Geriatric Medicine Annual Scientific Meeting 2026

Key considerations for codesign in residential aged care homes: an example of medication safety needs rounds (#272)

Georgina A Hughes 1 , Sara Javanparast 1 , Aaron Davis 2 , Ian Gwilt 2 , Huahua Yin 1 , Kate Little 2 , Daria Gutteridge 1 , Debra Rowett 3 , Jennifer Tieman 4 , Megan Corlis 5 , Craig Whitehead 6 7 , Janet K Sluggett 1 8 , on behalf of the Medication Safety Needs Rounds Research Group 9
  1. Adelaide University, College of Health, School of Allied Health and Human Performance, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
  2. Adelaide University, College of Creative Arts, Design and Humanities, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
  3. Adelaide University, College of Health, School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
  4. Flinders University, College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Research Centre for Palliative Care, Death and Dying, Bedford Park, South Australia, Australia
  5. Australian Nursing & Midwifery Federation SA Branch, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
  6. Flinders University, College of Medicine and Public Health, Bedford Park, South Australia, Australia
  7. SA Health, Southern Adelaide Local Health Network, Rehabilitation, Aged and Palliative Care, Bedford Park, South Australia, Australia
  8. South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
  9. Adelaide University, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

Aims. Codesign is a popular research methodology to ensure interventions are designed together with the people who implement or benefit from them. We aim to explore codesign of an interprofessional intervention to support medication safety in residential aged care homes (RACHs) and discuss key considerations.

 

Methods. A series of four codesign workshops and two activity sessions were delivered over six-months to adapt and extend the existing palliative care model and inform the design and delivery of medication safety needs rounds in RACHs and implementation resources. A divergent/convergent double-diamond approach designed activities that complemented and built on each other and embedded feedback loops. Activities were carefully designed and delivered separately to engage two population groups, including 36 geriatricians, general practitioners, pharmacists, nurses and RACH staff, and 16 residents and families/carers. Contextual information about RACHs and healthcare professionals’ processes and practices were gathered to inform model flexibility and focus areas for codesign.

 

Results. Effective relationship building enabled meaningful engagement and continued contributions from various key stakeholders. A reflective and iterative process tailored codesign activities, structure and focus for diverse groups and compared needs and values. Ensuring adequate representation among residents living with dementia is challenging and requires additional strategies and resources. This informed a feasibility study to implement monthly medication safety-focused triage meetings in six RACHs in 2026.

 

Conclusions. Key considerations for codesign in RACHs include relationship building, tailoring to meet participants’ needs, allowing an iterative approach and supporting representation, which helped shape the new model to address medication safety in RACHs.