Optimizing the Maastricht Work-Related Support intervention in clinical patient care: the value of integrating action research into intervention mapping

Healthcare professionals (HCPs) are increasingly recommended to play an important role in supporting people with chronic disease in work participation. An intervention for HCPs to provide work-related support to their patients in clinical care was developed with intervention mapping (Maastricht Work-Related Support; Maastricht WRS). Action research proposes ‘combining research and practice’, which allows us to incorporate experiences of HCPs while implementing and to realize intervention’s full potential. Therefore, the aim of this study is to explore, by integrating action research into an intervention mapping approach, how experiences of HCPs with early implementation can be used to optimize the Maastricht WRS in clinical care. Semi-structured interviews were held with nine HCPs (response rate 82