This weeks #OTalk is on the topic of how NHS R&D departments can help occupational therapists and will be hosted by Prof Susan Corr, Head of Research and Development at Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust (@LPTresearch).
Here is what Susan had to say…
I took up my post at Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust in 2013 after many years as an occupational therapy academic and researcher. I thought it a great opportunity to enable clinical staff to become research active and support the development of clinical academic roles across all healthcare professions.
Being research active in an NHS organisation comes in many guises mainly conducting, facilitating and/or implementing research.
Many NHS staff conduct research, often for the purposes of obtaining a qualification but also there are now many more staff aware that a clinical academic career pathway is a possibility for allied health professionals and nurses. NHS R&D departments can support these staff with all aspects of undertaking research including study design, grant writing, establishing academic partners and obtaining necessary approvals.
Most NHS Trusts support studies that are on the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), in that they have staff funded by the NIHR to enable service users and carers to be participants in national and international studies. Clinical staff can play a key role in facilitating this research in many ways including from taking on the role of local Principal Investigator for a study that offers their service users the opportunity to participate to handing out leaflets about studies. All these studies come to services through Trust R&D departments.
Accessing, critically appraising and utilising evidence in the workplace is key to ensuring care is high quality evidence based. NHS R&D departments can signpost staff to library facilities but may also deliver training or facilitate team discussions that help services to set up their own journal clubs for example. They may also host research events where recently conducted research is shared enabling clinical staff to learn about studies and discuss how to implement findings.
During this chat I would like to consider the following:
- What worked well when asking NHS R&D for support when conducting research?
- Service users consider research to be the ‘zone of hope’. How would you respond if asked what studies are happening locally?
- What helps utilising your/colleagues critical appraisal skills to discuss and implement research in your service?
- If you arranged a meeting with your Trusts R&D dept what would be your burning question/need?
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