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How does involvement in the process of applied health research benefit healthcare staff?
Thank you for taking the time to complete this short anonymous survey.
The views of both researchers and healthcare staff are important to us. Therefore, this survey is designed for both groups. Of course, some healthcare staff will also have had research roles and their perspective will be particularly valuable.
Research question
We know that healthcare organisations that are more research active have better patient outcomes. We understand much less about what the benefits are for healthcare staff of being involved in research although there is research that shows that healthcare organisations where research activity is high have reduced staff turnover and heightened staff satisfaction. Also, research to date has rarely explored the benefits of Applied Health Research specifically. Identifying these benefits will help in making an even stronger case to funders and also to healthcare organisations of the value of the work we do.
Last year we wrote a blog post discussing the potential benefits for healthcare staff of their involvement in, and/or direct exposure to the process of applied health research. The ARC YH Improvement Science team are now seeking the views of researchers and healthcare staff in other ARCs across the country. We plan to start by collating the views of applied health researchers/ health service researchers, social scientists and others who work directly or indirectly with healthcare staff in conducting their research. We are interested in understanding what you perceive to be the benefits to staff of engaging in the research that you conduct.
We are not interested in the benefits that arise from exposure to research findings. There is a lot of evidence already in this area. While we also appreciate that there may be downsides as well as benefits, this is not the focus here.
We are also not talking about audits, but research specifically.
Definitions
Applied health research
We define applied health research as any targeted research that applies results directly to a specific health-related problem. Indeed, applied research data are used in the real world, may directly influence healthcare practice and often ask questions raised by policy makers.
Examples of research studies that may be used in applied health research include, but are not limited to:
Randomised controlled trials
Surveys
Intervention co-design projects
Interview studies such as focus groups and those conducted one-to-one
We define involvement in the research process as any tangible staff exposure to researchers engaged in ongoing projects, in the workplace. Examples include:
Staff participation in a research project
(e.g. completing a survey, being interviewed)
Staff involvement and/or collaboration in a research project
(e.g. helping design or deliver an intervention or programme)
