Effective communication is a core component of quality care for older adults in residential and community aged-care settings. This protocol article describes a nested process evaluation designed to examine the co-design and implementation of a multicomponent intervention intended to improve communication in aged care. The protocol is presented alongside a larger randomized controlled trial and is reported in Health Expect (2026 Aug;29(4):e70782).
The primary aim of the nested evaluation is to document and analyze the processes of co-design and implementation for the multicomponent communication intervention. The evaluation is intended to: clarify how the intervention is developed with stakeholders, assess implementation processes and fidelity, identify contextual factors that facilitate or hinder adoption, and capture stakeholder experiences to aid interpretation of trial outcomes and inform future scale-up or adaptation.
The protocol is framed as a nested process evaluation that sits within the context of a randomized controlled trial (RCT). The publication is indexed as a Randomized Controlled Trial in the PubMed record and provides a process-focused protocol rather than primary outcome results. The nested evaluation is therefore intended to run in parallel with the RCT to provide explanatory data on implementation and mechanisms of effect.
A central feature of the protocol is a co-design approach. The research team includes academic investigators across multiple disciplines and institutions and explicitly involves people with lived experience through the Conversations About Care Lived Experience Advisory Group. Contributors named in the source represent: general practice and primary care, aphasia and communication research, allied health and rehabilitation sciences, engineering and computer science, rural health, and evidence-based aged-care expertise. This multidisciplinary composition underpins the co-design and suggests the study will engage a range of clinical, technical and lived-experience perspectives during intervention development and evaluation.
The intervention is described as multicomponent and aimed at improving communication in aged care settings. The published protocol focuses on how the components are co-designed and implemented rather than listing detailed component-by-component content in the source excerpt. The source does not provide full itemized descriptions of each component, nor detailed mechanisms of action in the excerpt available here; those specifics would be expected in the full text of the article available via PubMed Central.
The nested evaluation will examine domains commonly addressed in process evaluations: implementation fidelity, context, reach, adoption, and participant experience. The protocol aims to capture how the intervention is delivered in real-world aged care settings and how contextual factors influence both delivery and uptake. The source highlights the intent to use process data to interpret and contextualize the RCT’s outcomes and to inform potential wider implementation.
Authors and affiliations listed in the source include investigators from The University of Melbourne, The University of Queensland, La Trobe University and regional health networks. The team explicitly includes aphasia researchers and an advisory group representing lived experience of care, indicating emphasis on communication impairments and stakeholder-centred design. These collaborative affiliations reflect an interdisciplinary approach combining clinical, rehabilitation, engineering and lived-experience expertise.
This protocol appears in Health Expect (2026 Aug;29(4):e70782) with DOI 10.1111/hex.70782. Bibliographic identifiers provided in the source include PMID 42499266 and PMCID PMC13401143; the full text is available via PubMed Central. The PubMed entry classifies the item under Randomized Controlled Trial and provides author and affiliation details.
The PubMed excerpt provided summarizes title, authorship, affiliations and publication identifiers, and it outlines the protocol’s focus. However, the excerpt does not report key operational details required to reproduce or fully appraise the evaluation, including sample size and sampling strategy, specific measurement instruments and outcomes for the process evaluation, timelines and milestones, data collection and analysis methods, or planned approaches for integrating process and trial outcome data. These methodological specifics were not reported in the excerpt and should be consulted in the full article (PMCID PMC13401143) for complete information.
This nested process evaluation protocol documents a co-design and implementation-focused study of a multicomponent intervention to improve communication in aged care, embedded within a randomized controlled trial. The publication emphasizes multidisciplinary collaboration and lived-experience involvement. For full methodological detail—measures, analytic plans, timelines, and component-level descriptions—readers should consult the full open-access article via the provided PMCID and DOI.