Building a Research Ready Workforce in a Community NHS Trust

Abstract

Introduction: The Department of Health and Social Care sets out a vision to create a research positive culture across the NHS where all staff feel empowered and supported to participate in clinical research delivery. Community NHS services offer a unique setting in which there are diverse opportunities and growing potential for research, however limited evidence on staff perceptions of engaging in research. An exploration was carried out of perceptions of engaging in research at a Community NHS Trust to inform research capacity-building. Method: Sequential mixed methods design. Phase 1) Trust-wide survey inclusive of all professional groups, explored self-reported research engagement and experience, and barriers and enablers to engaging in research. Research and Development Culture Index was used to assess the strength of the organisation’s research and development culture and was compared between professional groups and services. Phase 2) Semi-structured interviews with eight participants purposively selected from phase one to further explore the themes raised. Results: Allied health professionals and nurses and midwives indicated the highest research and development culture across the professional groups. Across the sample, protected time was the most reported enabler, and lack of protected time was the most reported barrier to research engagement. The themes explored barriers and enablers to research engagement across individual, team, management, and organisation levels. It was also found that the COVID-19 pandemic has an ongoing impact on research engagement in professional practice. Discussion: The Trust staff experienced similar barriers and enablers to engaging in research than those previously identified in the literature. Recommendations for practice include research skills training, peer support forums, research bulletins, resources to support staff to deliver their own research and embedding research into job descriptions. The findings from this research will directly inform initiatives to build research readiness at the organisation and can also be considered more widely.