Study protocol for the strategic steering, implementation, evaluation, and dissemination of the Transfer Cluster of Academic Teaching Nursing Homes in long-term care in Germany (TCALL) - a quasi-experimental longitudinal study

TL;DR

This study aims to improve long-term care in Germany by implementing and evaluating academic teaching nursing homes over nine years.

Contribution

The study introduces a new initiative called the Transfer Cluster of Academic Teaching Nursing Homes to bridge science and practice in long-term care.

Findings

The initiative will implement and evaluate three academic teaching nursing homes in Bremen.

Job satisfaction and quality of care will be key outcomes measured in the quasi-experimental study.

A nationwide rollout concept will be developed based on the findings.

Abstract

Long-term care in Germany lags behind other countries, when it comes to adopting scientific knowledge into daily practice and vice versa. Structures for transferring technological innovations from science into practice or organizational development in nursing homes are missing, although comparable structures in the medical sector exist. Ensuring high-quality care remains one of the key challenges for the future in Germany, which can only be met by creating and implementing such transfer structures in the form of the “Transfer Cluster of Academic Teaching Nursing Homes” in order to make working in long-term care more attractive.

The aim of the Transfer Cluster is (a) implementing three Academic Teaching Nursing Homes in Bremen with (b) a nationwide rollout after nine years. An explanatory sequential mixed-methods design with an embedded quasi-experimental long-term study is used for the evaluation of the “Transfer Cluster of Academic Teaching Nursing Homes” initiative. In three nursing homes, different elements of the Transfer Cluster (e.g., digitalization) will be implemented and evaluated (intervention group). The main outcomes of the summative evaluation are job satisfaction of employees and quality of care of residents. The formative evaluation includes research diaries and focus groups. Results will be compared with three matched nursing homes as a control group. Dissemination material will be developed and a concept for the nationwide rollout will be derived.

Long-term care faces different challenges in the next years, including the realization and connectivity to research, especially to digitalization and the growing decline in staff. The close exchange with employees of the Academic Teaching Nursing Homes and their management provides important insights into everyday practice and leads to development of innovations which are really needed and therefore more accepted by employees and are tailored to their working conditions. Clear strength of the “Transfer Cluster of Academic Teaching Nursing Homes” initiative is the duration of up to nine years and a nationwide rollout which is thought of from the beginning. A successful nationwide rollout of Academic Teaching Nursing Homes will be a great milestone in nursing science and practice.

German Clinical Trials Register DRKS00035292 (Date of registration: December 9, 2024).

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12912-026-04325-4.

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