What is known about clinician researcher careers in allied health? A scoping review of the last decade

Abstract

PurposeAlthough the benefits of clinician researchers for health services are now more clearly recognised, their career development is not well understood. Hence, the purpose of this paper, a scoping review, is to determine what has been discussed in the literature about career opportunities for allied health (AH) clinician researchers in health services.Design/methodology/approachA structured literature search was completed in December 2020 for literature published 2010–2020 in English. A total of 2,171 unique abstracts were found and screened by two reviewers and 206 articles progressed to full text screening.FindingsForty-six studies were ultimately included; however, only two of these had aims directly related to AH clinician researcher careers, with the remainder containing only incidental data on this topic. Over half (56.5%) of the included studies were conducted in Australia, with a variety of AH professions represented. In terms of research design, 52.2% used cross-sectional survey designs, while case studies and qualitative research designs were also common. Key observations were that varying terminology and definitions were used, and there was little information about the inclusion of research in clinical positions or opportunities for formal clinical researcher positions in health services. There was some evidence to support that there are limited career opportunities after PhD completion, and that current career pathways are insufficient. There was conflicting evidence on whether engagement in research is beneficial for clinical career progression.Originality/valueThis review highlights a lack of research on this topic and outlines future directions to better support career pathways for AH clinician researchers.

A systematic review of Spanish academic production in the field of social work

“…Social work is an emerging and growing area of research not only in well-positioned social work journals but also in those of allied disciplines, such as sociology and social education. Such research has had important implications and repercussions not only for the growth of knowledge but also for policy development in various parts of the world (Brandenburg et al, 2022). In most disciplines, journals are one of the main means of accumulating and disseminating the knowledge that defines the discipline.…”

Identifying meta-research with researchers as study subjects: Protocol for a scoping review

“…They allow researchers to assess the current state of research on a topic, determine who experts are, identify key questions that need further research, and ascertain methodologies used in past studies [1][2][3]. Specifically in the field of meta-research (research on research), scoping reviews have been conducted on topics such as research waste [4], the use of systematic reviews in planning new studies of health research [5], guidelines for creating biomedical journals [6], the tasks of peer reviewers [7], clinician-researcher careers [8], and the training of clinician-scientists [9]. To capture literature relevant for answering a research question, identifying an appropriate set of search terms is a critical step in the development of a literature search [10,11].…”