Extended Surgical Team – Experiences of Research (ESTER)
An assessment of attitudes, barriers, and facilitators for nurses and allied healthcare professionals engaging with surgical research: Mixed method study
The aim of this study is to explore the attitudes, barriers, and facilitators to engaging in surgical research and whether these differ between medical and non-medical colleagues.
Nurses and allied healthcare professionals (NAHPs) are two of the largest workforces in the NHS. Despite their key roles, the development of NAHP early career researchers lags significantly behind the medical workforce. Previous research has shown that this is not due to a lack of enthusiasm, but rather due to scarce opportunities to develop research skills, perceptions of an unclear mandate to drive change in clinical practice, and a lack of professional and peer support networks.
The first stage will involve an open survey and the second stage will involve semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of survey participants. To be eligible to take part in the study, participants must be a medical or non-medical practitioner whose main clinical duties involve caring for surgical patients.
There is a clear need to empower NAHPs to take a joint role in surgical research. Doing so will build a diverse and enabled workforce capable of delivering relevant and creative research for patient benefit. Join us to take part in any aspect of research and contribute to the future of joint surgical healthcare.
