The importance of trusting conditions for organizations’ readiness to implement mHealth to support healthy lifestyle behaviors: An interview study within Swedish child and school healthcare

Abstract

Objective To explore perceptions among nurses, managers, and policymakers regarding organizational readiness to implement mHealth for the promotion of healthy lifestyle behaviors in child and school healthcare. Methods Individual semi-structured interviews with nurses ( n = 10), managers ( n = 10), and policymakers ( n = 8) within child and school healthcare in Sweden. Inductive content analysis was used for data analysis. Results Data showed that various trust-building aspects in health care organizations may contribute to readiness to implement mHealth. Several aspects were perceived to contribute trusting conditions: (a) how health-related data could be stored and managed; (b) how mHealth aligned with current organizational ways of working; (c) how implementation of mHealth was governed; and (d) camaraderie within a healthcare team to facilitate use of mHealth in practice. Poor capability to manage health-related data, as well as lack of governance of mHealth implementation were described as dealbreakers for readiness to implement mHealth in healthcare organizations. Conclusions Healthcare professionals and policymakers perceived that trusting conditions for mHealth implementation within organizations were central for readiness. Specifically, governance of mHealth implementation and the ability to manage health-data produced by mHealth were perceived critical for readiness.