Bridging the gap between research and clinical care: strategies to increase staff awareness and engagement in clinical research

Abstract

Background Research active hospitals have better patient outcomes and improvements in healthcare are associated with greater staff engagement in research. However, barriers to research activity include inadequate knowledge/training and perceptions that research is a specialist activity. Nursing is an academic discipline but the infrastructure supporting nursing research worldwide is variable and sustaining clinical academic careers remains challenging. The National Institute of Health Research 70@70 Senior Nurse Research Leader programme provides dedicated time to increase clinical academic opportunities and foster a research culture across England; we describe initiatives developed by one National Institute of Health Research 70@70 leader to increase clinical staff engagement in research. Aim The purpose of this work was to develop initiatives to facilitate clinical research opportunities and bridge the gap between clinical care and research. Methods New strategies were developed in one health service to increase clinical staff engagement in research activity. This included: (a) Chief Nurse Research Fellows: clinical staff undertaking bespoke research training to identify local clinical research priorities, (b) an exemplar nurse-led Embedding Research In Care unit to pioneer innovation, evaluation and research participation supported by a research facilitator and (c) a Clinical Academic Network for nursing, midwifery and allied healthcare professionals to aid collaborative working. Results The first cohort of Chief Nurse Research Fellows have successfully completed a bespoke training programme and, with mentoring, developed projects to tackle clinical problems. The Embedding Research In Care unit initiative was configured and the first Embedding Research In Care unit has been awarded. A Clinical Academic Network group of 25+ nurses, midwives and allied health professionals was established and provides peer support and mentoring. Conclusions This multi-faceted approach has successfully supported research training/engagement, enabled career development and identified nurses/midwives with potential to undertake clinical academic careers. A range of strategies, such as those described in this paper, are required to successfully bridge the gap between clinical care and research and provide additional opportunities for clinical staff to become engaged in a research active career.

The Pillars of the IJTMB—Looking More Closely at the Practice Section

“…Other healthcare professions, such as nursing and medicine, are continuing to develop mechanisms within the structure of their practice to facilitate asking new questions following the implementation of research into practice. ( 2 ) These mechanisms support the continuation of the research cycle. In TMB, this structure is less prevalent due to the nature of our practices.…”

The visibility of research within mandatory National Health Service Trust Induction programmes in England: an exploratory survey study

“…Even for sites where time was allocated to discuss research, the time provision was relatively short. Reasons for this lack of time provision were not well documented; however, they might be seen as a reflection of research being regarded as a lower priority, or that research is considered ‘specialist activity’ and not relevant for all members of staff (Shepherd et al,. 2022).…”

“…Initiatives to increase research awareness and activity among Nurses, Midwives and Allied Health Professionals (NMAHPs) are emerging. These range from schemes to develop senior nurse and midwifery research leadership (Henshall et al, 2020), training and support to facilitate clinical academic career development for NMAHPs (Oulton et al, 2022) and innovations such as Chief Nurse Fellows to engage clinically based staff in identifying and addressing local clinical research priorities (Bramley et al, 2018, Shepherd et al, 2022). However, for an organisation to signal that research is part of its core business, messages about research opportunities need to reach all healthcare professionals across the organisation.…”

Barrier identification and implementation strategy integration in the guidelines of optimal postpartum care for advanced maternal age in China: a study based on the CFIR-ERIC implementation strategy matching tool

“…Maastrup et al found that exclusive breastfeeding rates in preterm infants at discharge improved after training neonatal nurses in breastfeeding-supportive evidence-based practical training (32); with planning, systems review, and trained staff, postpartum depression (PPD) screening can be integrated into obstetric and paediatric practices and high screening and referral rates can be achieved (33). Others have also demonstrated that effective evidence-based knowledge training is of great signi cance for improving nurses' evidence-based practical ability and facilitating the translation of evidence into the clinical practice (34)(35)(36). Our team planned to continuously provide nurses with various evidence-based medicine websites and with dedicated team members guiding them through the electronic library to access materials, conducting a variety of training regularly.…”