Survey sets baseline for further colleague involvement in research

by Dr Roanna Burgess, Consultant Physiotherapist/ Musculoskeletal Lead

SWB has around 500 AHPs, 150 healthcare scientists, 50 pharmacists and over 2,200 registered nurses and midwives. In order to better understand the research training, skills, capabilities, and outputs of our NMAHPPS (nurses, midwives, allied health professionals, pharmacists, psychologists and healthcare scientists) workforce we designed and launched a research survey in May 2022 to capture information about research activity amongst our NMAHPPS population. Sent out weekly in the communications bulletin, the survey was launched at a dedicated research forum event and was sent to operational leads across the Trust encouraging wide dissemination across teams. The survey targeted NMAHPPs colleagues who are part of, or interested, in research within the Trust.

We had 101 responses to the survey in total with the largest uptake from the nursing NMAHPPs group, followed by AHPs. Staff uptake was highest in the research and development department, musculoskeletal service, acute medicine, community rehabilitation (iCARES), and anaesthetics/ critical care/pain, with respondents spread across 31 of 67 listed services. Distinct research roles included clinical trials pharmacists, research nurses/midwives and clinical research practitioners (CRPs), many additional staff were in advanced clinical practice (ACP) roles. Banding level was high overall, with over 60 per cent of participants being band 7 or above.

The majority of colleagues indicated that their MSc was their only source of research training.

A small number had undertaken other formal research training such as: two people having completed NIHR internships, one individual completing a pre-doctoral NIHR training programme, two staff completing regionally funded research internships, two staff completing regionally funded PhD training programmes, and two staff completing self-funded PhD study.

Most staff were linked to a higher education institution (HEI), including University of Birmingham, Birmingham City University (BCU), Wolverhampton, Coventry, Warwick, and Keele, and specific individuals linked to Aston, Worcester, Staffordshire, Derby and De Montford. Seven NMAHPPS staff had been awarded PhDs, and two individuals reported having substantive clinical academic posts.

In relation to experience with research delivery, 31 members of staff reported being involved with research delivery at SWB, 12 reported having principal investigator (PI) experience, with an additional 3 reporting this at associate level, and seven reporting chief investigator (CI) experience. Five NMAHPPs staff reported having grant writing experience with four detailing successful grant applications in the last three years. Eighteen staff reported having a peer reviewed publication in the last five years, with four reporting five publications or more. Seventeen staff had presented their research at national/international conferences, and 21 had submitted posters.

There was strong support from those that filled out the survey to be part of a wider NMAHPPs research group/network, and to receive regular evidence updates within the Trust about research.

In summary, NMAHPPs professionals make up around 40 per cent of our staff workforce across the Trust but are known to be underrepresented in research comparative to medical counterparts. This survey showed we had interest in research across NMAHPPs professionals but there were a high number of services with no NMAHPPs staff filling in the survey. At this point we do not know if this is due to staff not seeing comms, having few NMAHPPs staff in these services, or not having research trained, active, or interested, NMAHPPs in these areas. Another notable finding was that the majority of those filling out the survey and with research experience were in senior roles. Our aim is to make research everyone’s business and engage staff in research earlier within their career pathways. There were also great examples of research activity including: PhD level training, joint academic posts, PI/CI experience, successful grant applications, research papers and presentations.

We are now using these survey results to better understand our baseline with regards to research training, activity, and delivery, and to develop our NMAHPPs research strategy and objectives. This is aligned to the Trust’s overarching research strategy aiming to support NMAHPPs professionals to make an increased contribution to the Trust’s exciting research vision, helping to deliver better outcomes for our patients.

If you would like to hear more about our work or to join our online network, please sign up to Knowledge Hubour online research forum. Use your Trust email id to register on Knowledge Hub https://khub.net and assign 'Sandwell and West Birmingham Clinical Research Forum' as your Group. This online space allows you to network, provide peer support, collaborate with others, share knowledge, develop best practice, and become aware of education and research training opportunities available in the Trust and outside. If you have any queries, regarding the registration, please email preeti. puligari1@nhs.net