Researcher practitioner engagement in health research: The development of a new concept

Abstract

The engagement of frontline practitioners in the production of research-derived knowledge is often advocated. Doing so can address perceived gaps between what is known from research and what happens in clinical practice. Engagement practices span a continuum, from co-production approaches underpinned by principles of equality and power sharing to those which can minimalize practitioners' contributions to the knowledge production process. We observed a conceptual gap in published healthcare literature that labels or defines practitioners' meaningful contribution to the research process.We, therefore, aimed to develop the concept of "Researcher Practitioner Engagement" in the context of academically initiated healthcare research in the professions of nursing, midwifery, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, and speech and language therapy. Guided by Schwartz-Barcott et al.'s hybrid model of concept development, published examples were analyzed to establish the attributes, antecedents, and consequences of this type of engagement. Academic researchers (n = 17) and frontline practitioners (n = 8)with relevant experience took part in online focus groups to confirm, eliminate, or elaborate on these proposed concept components. Combined analysis of theoretical and focus group data showed that the essence of this form of engagement is that practitioners' clinical knowledge is valued from a study's formative stages. The practitioner's clinical perspectives inform problem-solving and decision-making in study activities and enhance the professional and practice relevance of a study. The conceptual model produced from the study findings forms a basis to guide engagement practices, future concept testing, and empirical evaluation of engagement practices.

Alltagsbewältigung nach der Geburt: Was kann helfen?

“…Dazu haben wir eine Anleitung zur Konzeptentwicklung 15 und ein Beispiel ihrer Umsetzung 4 genutzt. Folgende Schritte sind zu gehen:…”

“…systematische Literaturrecherche, Auswertung nach Wünschen der Familie und Ansichten der Fachpersonen, die die 3 Hinweise von Baltes und Baltes 2 ergänzen könnten…”

“…Dazu haben wir eine Anleitung zur Konzeptentwicklung [15] und ein Beispiel ihrer Umsetzung [4] genutzt. Folgende Schritte sind zu gehen: 1. systematische Literaturrecherche, Auswertung nach Wünschen der Familie und Ansichten der Fachpersonen, die die 3 Hinweise von Baltes und Baltes [2] ergänzen könnten 2.…”

Perspectives on reporting non-verbal interactions from the contemporary research focus group

“…Morgan (2010) suggests that reporting focus group findings can include not only the use of quotations from individuals, but also text to give insight into the group interactions and present sequences of interactions where they best illustrate the point, for example, "when the mere mention of a new topic produces rapid-fire responses from several different participants" or the intensity of feeling with which a point is stated (Redmond and Curtis 2009, p xx). In our own focus group research, we have included detailed reporting of both verbal and non-verbal interactions (Russell et al 2018;Daniels et al 2021). Doing so provided transparency on how participants interacted and how interactions generated data.…”

Engaging primary care professionals in OECD’s international PaRIS survey: a documentary analysis

“…An increasing number of funding agencies have made stakeholder engagement a requirement for research studies [ 5 , 8 ]. Different aspects of the contextualization of healthcare professional engagement, such as type, stage and level of engagement, facilitators and barriers and impact, have been documented in the literature [ 3 , 5 , 9 ]. A review of pilot projects of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) found that 87% of researchers reported engaging clinicians [ 5 ] and that the main reasons for engaging clinicians were to benefit from their expertise, to obtain clinician buy-in and to ensure more meaningful results.…”