Nurses, midwives & allied health professionals in research
Nurses, midwives and AHPs pursuing research via qualifications and development schemes
Some of the nurses, midwives and allied health professionals (NMAHPs)* we spoke to had experience of leading research as part of a post-graduate qualification (e.g. a Master’s or PhD degree) and/or undertaken a scheme to develop research skills (e.g. an internship or protected time to write a funding proposal). Many of them were, or had previously been, employed in research delivery posts. Others had been exposed to health research in some other way which had sparked their interest in undertaking their own research.
So, it’s an NIHR [National Institute for Health Research] funded Master’s. It’s a Master’s in clinical research. And the way that it works is you, you win an award. It’s quite competitive. So you have to put forward an idea for research, it has to be practical, has to be patient based, it has to be you know of its time, it has to be relevant. You put that forward and that forms the basis of the Master’s really. So, it is, it’s a modular Master’s and we do different modules that are specific to qualitative research, quantitative research, designing research, but what runs through the whole Master’s is your dissertation module. And it’s a practical empirical research project, and the aim at the outcome is not to produce the, you know 20,000 word dissertation, it’s to produce a paper that can be published. And I really like that because I think it’s so much more practical, you know very rarely people have to write 20-30,000 words. And you know very few people read that amount. Whereas you know so many people read articles in a, in a, in a journal, or on a website, you know open access, that kind of thing. It’s gonna have much more impact by doing that. So, I, I really like that. And so that, that goes throughout the whole of the Master’s
I guess the opportunity that I mentioned at the start of the video, to be a consultant on a, research grant, was the only research opportunity that came my way in, you know, during my clinical practice to that point, and by then I’d probably been practicing I guess six or seven years. So yeah that’s the only opportunity that I’d really thought about. And I guess it was from that, I think you know once something is put on your radar you start noticing more opportunities I suppose.
So from that point I suppose that’s when I thought, started thinking about doing the Master’s, and from the Master’s I sat thinking about where that might take me going forward, and I guess I’d enjoyed doing the learning, that sort of like I said deep thinking based learning, that the Master’s gave me an opportunity to look up and outside of my profession, and learn from more broadly sort of healthcare policy and strategy, and how that might inform my practice and my service development.
So, I really liked the idea of looking more broadly across a range of different disciplines, I suppose. And developing and informing my practice from that. And then, like I said, I kind of sought out research opportunities going forward. I still didn’t really ever contemplate a PhD. I didn’t really think that would be part of my career trajectory until sort of much later on.
I think it’s quite an exciting time, because of what NIHR [National Institute for Health Research] are doing in terms of opportunities for clinicians to be funded to be trained and then have sort of joint roles, posts that, you know, so I, it’s, it’s a good time. So, I would say to health visitors now, pursue that route, you know, look at what NIHR offer. The way I did it was just by luck and chance, and an interest in research. I sort of just somehow fell into, you know, but, stumbled along building a bit of a career by chance really than by any, you know, there weren’t particular support mechanisms out there, institutional support mechanisms. So, I just sort of, and I probably, looking back, could have been a lot more ambitious about it, but it’s, I think, I feel I’ve like I’ve had a great career. But yeah, anybody doing it now, I would say the, the structures are increasingly there. And I would say get into those structures, so you’ve got support, you’ve got mentoring, you’ve got, you know, yeah, all the things I didn’t have but, you know, found my way really through luck, ending up here I guess anyway. So that’s what I would, and I would say, you know, because I really believe in health visiting as a service, there’s a, you know, there’s a huge job to be done in terms of the evidence base and the profile and yeah. I would say to health visitors, you know, go for it, do it.
The NMAHPs we spoke to had pursued academic research qualifications and/or development schemes for different reasons, including:
Libby described what was entailed in her Master’s degree.
Libby described what was entailed in her Master’s degree.
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After being a consultant on a research grant, Katherine started thinking about doing a Master’s degree.
After being a consultant on a research grant, Katherine started thinking about doing a Master’s degree.
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So from that point I suppose that’s when I thought, started thinking about doing the Master’s, and from the Master’s I sat thinking about where that might take me going forward, and I guess I’d enjoyed doing the learning, that sort of like I said deep thinking based learning, that the Master’s gave me an opportunity to look up and outside of my profession, and learn from more broadly sort of healthcare policy and strategy, and how that might inform my practice and my service development.
So, I really liked the idea of looking more broadly across a range of different disciplines, I suppose. And developing and informing my practice from that. And then, like I said, I kind of sought out research opportunities going forward. I still didn’t really ever contemplate a PhD. I didn’t really think that would be part of my career trajectory until sort of much later on.
Mary encouraged health visitors interested in a research career to explore available funding and support.
Mary encouraged health visitors interested in a research career to explore available funding and support.
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- to help access particular jobs and for career development;
- to decide whether or not to pursue a research career further;
- to advance their knowledge about and development of research skills;
- to address a topic or question they were interested in;
- to contribute to their professional discipline’s evidence base;
- for more or a different type of engagement with patients and the public; and
- out of interest and enjoyment.
Some of these initiatives, such as the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Clinical Doctoral Research Fellowships, were explicit in being part of a structured clinical-academic pathway for career development. This appealed to some people because it meant focusing on clinically-relevant questions, appropriately designing studies for healthcare settings, encouragement to disseminate findings for clinical practice impact (e.g. to frontline staff), and potentially being able to also maintain their clinical non-research role*.
Other people we spoke to who were currently employed in research delivery roles were keen to pursue a Master’s or PhD degree in the future. Imogen was in the process of developing a doctorate application alongside her job leading a team of research nurses.
Pursuing research for jobs and careers
For some people, pursuing a post-graduate degree or internship was seen as helpful for securing and maintaining a job in research delivery. Alice felt her Master’s degree had supported her application for a senior research midwife post. Osi found hers helpful in her research midwife post, for giving insight into the complexity of research.
Academic research qualifications and development schemes were seen as helping develop or support other career options, including becoming independent researchers. Laura X saw her internship as “a great stepping stone” for potential promotion. Rachel Y did a PhD when she became a research officer advising other radiographers about pursuing research as she felt it gave “credibility” and it had been an ambition of hers for some time. After relocating to a smaller Trust in a more rural area, Katherine felt the career “horizon had shrunk quite a lot” and pursuing research through a PhD was a way to “broaden opportunities”.
Yeah so I did an NIHR [National Institute for Health Research] Clinical Research Internship, when I’d been qualified about a year, 18 months. And I did that at a university under one of the professors, and that was supposed to give me an overview of the way she worked I guess, and we wrote a paper together. And then after that, because of that I guess I got onto the, one of the NIHR’s MScs so that was really good. And that was about research management, what else did I do? I can’t even remember now. And there was statistics, you know, we did a lot of quant stuff, statistics, and then we did some qual stuff as well. So I feel like I got a good insight to, into the different methodologies as well as like the overarching how you would actually do research within the NHS. And I think that has helped me enormously with my job, I just, like understanding terms and who’s who, and what it takes to get a study rolling and stuff like that. That’s been really good. And then doing my own research, I guess I already had experience of recruiting, yeah so that helped.
So I worked as a midwife on the labo-, done a lot and then ended up on the labour ward which I absolutely loved. But so we used to work from clinical guidelines and I was just like 'it would be better for me to-', I would want to be the person that is participating and actually writing those guidelines as opposed to just the person that’s kind of doing them. So I done my dissertation, usually with the degree shall I say. And I hated it to start off with, but then by the end of it I loved it ‘cos I was just like 'oh my gosh, I've just found out why-'. It was a hands-off/hands-on the perineum and I was just like 'I can justify why I would do what I do.' So I just thought I wanna to be able to do that and everything, and actually be able to almost do that for everyone. So not only my practice but more generally like other midwives' practice.
So, I actually went out-, I talked to some senior midwives and they actually advised me to do a more general Masters. So actually went into public health, which I'm still completing; just finishing off my dissertation now [laugh]. But that then broadened my view in terms of nought to five-year olds, which was really, really good. However, I think I just had a love for midwifery so I kind of went back. And then I randomly applied for a research midwife role. I know that you're meant to have a Masters and had experience in it, but I literally sold myself like crazy ‘cos I really wanted to do it. And then someone actually just gave me the chance, so it was not the normal way to go in, but I was very lucky. And I worked well within it.
For some, the appeal of internships and/or post-graduate academic research qualifications stemmed from feeling that it offered more opportunities for engagement across the lifespan of research studies (design, analysis, dissemination) than available in most research delivery roles. Gavin had been in a data collection role previously but “wanted to be involved in it [research] a bit more deeply that that… I wanted to be involved in analysing the data and I wanted to be involved in writing the papers”.
Tabitha’s research internship gave her an overview of health research. This had proven helpful in her research midwife post.
Tabitha’s research internship gave her an overview of health research. This had proven helpful in her research midwife post.
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Osi enjoyed writing a dissertation in her first degree and wanted to do more research. She applied for a research midwife post but worried she wouldn’t be offered it because she hadn’t completed her Master’s yet.
Osi enjoyed writing a dissertation in her first degree and wanted to do more research. She applied for a research midwife post but worried she wouldn’t be offered it because she hadn’t completed her Master’s yet.
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So, I actually went out-, I talked to some senior midwives and they actually advised me to do a more general Masters. So actually went into public health, which I'm still completing; just finishing off my dissertation now [laugh]. But that then broadened my view in terms of nought to five-year olds, which was really, really good. However, I think I just had a love for midwifery so I kind of went back. And then I randomly applied for a research midwife role. I know that you're meant to have a Masters and had experience in it, but I literally sold myself like crazy ‘cos I really wanted to do it. And then someone actually just gave me the chance, so it was not the normal way to go in, but I was very lucky. And I worked well within it.
Some nurses emphasised the important distinction between ‘research nurses’ and ‘nurse researchers’. The title ‘research nurse’ was associated with being in research delivery and carrying out research activities according to the instruction of a protocol/plan devised by another individual or team. In contrast, a ‘nurse researcher’ was someone who designed and had oversight for their own study (or set of studies). Many people had encountered confusion between the two – including their own misunderstandings at earlier times. For example, Claire had sourced funding for a research methods course in her first research nurse post as she had anticipated the role would involve more independent study design and practice, but later realised this wasn’t usually the case.
I think go and try it for, it’s not for everyone but if it is for you, you will know it. I also encourage everyone who likes to be a research nurse to become a nurse researcher. If you’re in this job you are curious, you like to know things and surely you have ideas. And in my team I already have people who have ideas and they know what they want to do and it’s just teaching them how to get to that point. And I think it’s very exciting times for research nurses, in a way.
It has actually been an evolution of the role, I think that’s because I’ve had very supportive managers who’ve seen the need to grow and develop the role. The job description itself we’ve changed so during that period of time, I should say, for eight years of it, I’ve been doing a PhD part-time as well, so that impacted on it because during that time you’re obviously becoming a chief investigator of your own study. But it’s also, it’s, we re-did, about 18 months ago we re-did the job description to reflect where I wanted the job to go and where, where the unit needed the job to go. And actually now it’s re-badged from being ‘Research Sister’ to ‘Nurse Researcher’, not with any increase in pay and not re-banded in anyway, but just the focus of the job description changed so it’s much more now about moving from that delivery to being an independent researcher, developing the research culture, supporting other staff, education about what research role could involve, you know, what does good research look like, and actually a lot more of an emphasis on public and patient engagement.
For the other professional groups we spoke to, there was also a distinction between research delivery roles (research midwives, research allied health professionals (AHPs)) and roles leading research (midwife researchers, AHP researchers). However, these titles could be blurry in practice and some people had experience of having both roles at the same time. For example, in a previous job Rachel Y started more than ten years ago, she had the title of ‘research radiographer’ but her activities had been mostly leading her own research; she also carried out some research delivery activities for other studies but this was a more minor and occasional part of her work activity.
Simona led a research team and was undertaking a PhD. She encouraged more research nurses to become nurse researchers.
Simona led a research team and was undertaking a PhD. She encouraged more research nurses to become nurse researchers.
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Julie’s job description was rebadged, from research sister to nurse researcher, since completing her PhD.
Julie’s job description was rebadged, from research sister to nurse researcher, since completing her PhD.
Sex: Female
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Funding and backfill arrangements
Various funders and schemes were mentioned, including those offered by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), Health Education England, the Scottish Government Chief Science Office, the Florence Nightingale Foundation, the Stroke Association, and individual universities.
These opportunities to pursue research through academic qualifications and development schemes with funding were very competitive. Several people had been rejected for places or funding at various points. While some successfully re-applied to the same funder at a later date, others sought out alternative funding or changed their plans for their next steps.
The schemes to pursue an extra academic qualification and/or develop research skills through internships usually seconded NMAHPs out of their clinical roles, allowing backfill. For many, it was this funding that meant they could pursue a research career path. Laura X explained that her funded internship “was a good opportunity to get involved in research that would mean that I wouldn’t need to take a drop in my salary”. A few people had self-funded (fully or partially) their academic research qualifications.
I would like to be someone doing my own research. And so that’s-, I'm kind of banging on my drum about that because I-, I've always felt that, but then I've been sort of stumbled by how difficult that could be in practical terms, because as I said, I can't-, I can't just do a PhD because I fancy it and I'm independently wealthy and that’s what I'm going to do for five years. I need it to be through an awarded really well supported process. So, there are those amazing awards, like the NIHR [National Institute for Health Research] doctorate one. But the doctorate application probably takes a year to do the application and to have a really good supportive team around you. But then, just a few months ago there was the announcement of a new award, which is a pre-doctorate award, which is investing in people's time to get to be able to submit a competitive PhD application. So, it essentially buys out your time and sets you-, and you-, you submit an application where you’ve set up some supervisory relationships and a bespoke training package for yourself. And then if the lucky people who are awarded this would have a couple of day-, perhaps a couple of days a week, or 50% of their working time, to devote to the development of their own research pathway as a clinical academic.
And that’s what I want to do.
I was given my time off to go to the university in, in the first year of my Master’s, for the taught modules parts, but the, the year that I was doing my dissertation I wasn’t given any time off, so that was quite hard. So, you know often people will say to me now, “Oh Rachel, you know, we know we should be doing research but it’s just too hard to fit it in,” and you, and I think sometimes in life you know, when you’re doing some of those types of roles you have to accept that some of it will be partly in your own time really. So that, the whole of the, you know the dissertation part was done really sort of evenings and weekends, apart from obviously the interviews that I was doing with patients, was done in my work time. So that was done then. And as regards sort of fees, I think I was quite lucky, my employer paid half of it and I paid half of it, which I think is probably quite fair, you know? They, I think if the expectation of them having to pay for all of it would have back then been quite difficult because it was a gamble really on their part, they didn’t really know what they were going to get out of it. And I think with, there was that part in them that if I at least had inputted some of my own finances I was less likely to pull out of it, which was never going to be on the cards, but it does happen.
Nikki and Jed expressed concerns that some specialist AHP jobs might be tricky to backfill, even when funding was available for this purpose. In addition, managers were not always willing to let NMAHPs temporarily leave their jobs to pursue research development schemes and qualifications. Although he himself felt well-supported, Jed knew some NMAHPs had been disadvantaged by their efforts to pursue academic research qualifications: “they’ve not been allowed out of their clinical role”, have “had to leave their jobs to carry on with their research”, been given a “downgrading” or had to “go on the bank and not have a substantive post to go back to”.
Alison would like to do a PhD one day, but wasn’t sure how to “do that without stepping off the earning treadmill”.
Alison would like to do a PhD one day, but wasn’t sure how to “do that without stepping off the earning treadmill”.
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And that’s what I want to do.
Rachel Y’s Master’s degree was half funded by her employing hospital and she had time off work for the taught classes. A similar arrangement was in place with her new employer when she did her PhD.
Rachel Y’s Master’s degree was half funded by her employing hospital and she had time off work for the taught classes. A similar arrangement was in place with her new employer when she did her PhD.
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Several people highlighted the secondary benefits to healthcare environments of having NMAHPs undertaking these research initiatives, such as helping to build research capacity and supporting other staff to use published research in their practice or for service development. Libby thought it was a “win-win situation” as “a) they don’t lose out while I’m doing the study but b) when I go back into the work place, I’m going to go back in much more skilled and knowledgeable about what I’m doing”. Some people felt their managers and colleagues valued these secondary benefits, but others felt their skills and insights were not fully appreciated.
If you don’t follow the, this pathway that I’ve followed then I don’t know how people do it. You know, cos either you leave your job and you take a stipend and then you go and almost start from scratch, which if you want people at a reasonable level of experience-, so if you want experienced clinicians, most people can’t afford to do that. So the clinical academic pathway I think is brilliant. They’ve made it a bit inaccessible at points, cos they’ve changed the time scales and it doesn’t quite butterfly to-, it doesn’t quite sort of, I don’t know, it doesn’t quite flow in the way that it could, ‘cos they moved the, the, the sort of time in the year that they advertise things. But it does give you the ability to follow a pathway and receive back-, backfill. So your organisation isn’t penalised. It’s hard if you do an unusual job, because you might not just have someone that can step into your role so I think, you know, that’s, that is an issue. But it does, so my sort of working arrangements for the last three years have been that I’ve taken-, I’ve got like a temporary reduction in my hours, and then, so I work these few hours that I’m allowed to work, and that keeps my pension going, and that sort of thing, although it’s reduced what I’m contributing. And then they, the organisations have got the backfill to employ someone to do the rest of my job. So that’s real-, that’s relied on them being very flexible, you know, and very accommodating of, of my sort of desire to do this piece of research. Many people wouldn’t be, you know, they wouldn’t, they wouldn’t have that flexibility. So the working environment I think is not always that supportive of people doing this kind of thing.
Knowledge, training and skills development
Jed identified a number of potential challenges for NMAHPs wishing to undertake research qualifications. This included the level of funding available, the timing of applications, and being able to secure backfill.
Jed identified a number of potential challenges for NMAHPs wishing to undertake research qualifications. This included the level of funding available, the timing of applications, and being able to secure backfill.
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The knowledge and training available through academic qualification and development schemes was greatly appreciated. Gavin saw his PhD as a “vehicle for learning” skills which he could then apply to other topics in the future. He explained that both he and the funders saw training as a key investment of the process: “it is as much if not more about the individual than the project itself”. The training NMAHPs had undertaken included various aspects of research design, practice, analysis and dissemination, such as courses on tools to support these activities (like Microsoft Word, NVivo and Endnote). For those in clinical research delivery roles, undertaking a Master’s or PhD could provide insight into methods they had previously little involvement with – including qualitative data collection and analysis.
So the NIHR [National Institute for Health Research] pathway, there’s an internship before you do an MRes, and on that we did quite, we did things like Good Clinical Practice and other bits of, you know, training around NHS ethics. Around setting up studies and trials. We spent time in, in sort of the clinical trial unit’s around in hospitals. So, it was a bit like it was like a little mini apprenticeship, and it was really good, particularly if you’ve not been a research nurse, so I think the research nurses found it a bit boring, cos it was what they do, but for all of the rest of us it was really helpful. And then when I did the MRes at [city/university] cos they held the funding for that programme, their approach to the MRes was that you did a thesis but you also did a clinical portfolio, and that was a bit like a kind of enhanced version of what I’d done on the internship. So it had all these competencies that you had to meet as like a fledgling researcher. So it was really good actually, it was really, really helpful cos it meant that I had to go and do things that probably in my research career I won’t, so I probably won’t spend much time in a clinical trials unit because I’m a qualitative researcher and spending time with humans really rather than samples, but it was really helpful to get a sense of what that type of research is like. And you had, so you had to do all of these competencies as part of that MRes programme. I don’t think any of the other providers did that. But it was really, really good and it involved, you know, some of it was sort of taught seminars, there were some modules that you had to do. So quite a lot of research training, not just sort of academic writing.
And the university part of it, I guess it was kind of what I was expecting. It was like an overview of research methods about, like qualitative, quantitative methods, it’s only, it was only one day a week for five weeks. So, I don’t really feel like I got a lot out of that I have to say, but in terms of the teaching at [university], than what I, what I gain at [university]. I feel like I get more, I mean it’s, I think the two of them need to go together and that’s the, the whole point of the internship. But I feel like I’ve learned more from the practical side of things, from doing it.
So, what I expect, what I expected at [university], at [university] was to be more of an observer. As to go there to observe interviews, observe them obtaining consent from, from participants, to go to see an ethics proposal being written. I didn’t really expect to, to have, to have to work if that makes sense. I expected it to be much more of an observational role. But the reality is it’s been quite different from that. There has been a lot of practical hands on with the data analysis, so that wasn’t what I was expecting. I certainly wasn’t expecting to come out of the placement having written a paper. So, in a way I think it’s a good thing and it will really benefit me, I also thought at the time that it was quite, it was quite intimidating, and I felt really overwhelmed and I didn’t have the, the right skill set. Especially when people were sitting there, talking on all these research terms that I had no idea what they were talking about, and thinking, “Now I have to go home and go to all these interviews,” so it was quite overwhelming initially. But that slowly, as time has gone on, that’s slowly gotten better.
For some AHPs in particular, their research had shifted them away from core professional interests or perspectives. Jed recalled that, “for a while, I felt like I’d sort of stepped outside of my professional identity [as an art psychotherapist] and gone into a new one”; as his PhD continued, this was “becoming a bit more integrated”.
Jed described his experience of undertaking an internship and MRes (Master of Research) degree.
Jed described his experience of undertaking an internship and MRes (Master of Research) degree.
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Laura X’s internship involved taught classes and a research placement. Although the latter took some adjustment, she liked that the internship had both theoretical and practical aspects.
Laura X’s internship involved taught classes and a research placement. Although the latter took some adjustment, she liked that the internship had both theoretical and practical aspects.
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So, what I expect, what I expected at [university], at [university] was to be more of an observer. As to go there to observe interviews, observe them obtaining consent from, from participants, to go to see an ethics proposal being written. I didn’t really expect to, to have, to have to work if that makes sense. I expected it to be much more of an observational role. But the reality is it’s been quite different from that. There has been a lot of practical hands on with the data analysis, so that wasn’t what I was expecting. I certainly wasn’t expecting to come out of the placement having written a paper. So, in a way I think it’s a good thing and it will really benefit me, I also thought at the time that it was quite, it was quite intimidating, and I felt really overwhelmed and I didn’t have the, the right skill set. Especially when people were sitting there, talking on all these research terms that I had no idea what they were talking about, and thinking, “Now I have to go home and go to all these interviews,” so it was quite overwhelming initially. But that slowly, as time has gone on, that’s slowly gotten better.
Many people felt that undertaking an academic research qualification was an opportunity for them to not only contribute to the evidence-based of their discipline but also promote the contributions that they and their colleagues could make to health research. As paramedic research was relatively novel, Graham found that he was asked to do a lot of presentations. He saw presenting as “a skill I think you have to develop, like intubation, like cannulation, like writing for publications, they’re all unique skills”.
I think for a while I felt like I’d sort of stepped outside of my professional identity and gone into a new one. And so I felt very much like a fledgling health researcher, and that wasn’t my intention, it was because I’d, you know, I’d set off with my research question which was about what an art psychotherapist might offer this particular patient group. And then in my first literature review found such a lack of research that it was like ‘okay, well either I don’t do this, or I go, step, take some of the steps back and do some of that research that hasn’t been done’. Which is what I chose to do, and I'm glad because it’s made me much more sort of, you know, it’s put me in contact with a much broader range of colleagues and professions and people and, than if I’d stayed very much as an art psychotherapy researcher, that would have been quite narrow, for me. But as the study has progressed and I’ve thought more about how I’ve collected data, how I’m analysing data, how I might bring the study together, how I might disseminate it, and bring, even write up the thesis, you know, the art psychotherapy part of me has engaged more and more and more. From ethics onwards really. So from sort of going to that panel and having to sort of think-, sort of reassure about the patient group but also then defend the methodology choices, it feels like the art psychotherapy bit of me has kind of re-engaged. And my intention would be, you know, if I could have my wish, [laugh] if you like, would be that I could go back into a clinical-academic art psychotherapy post. And be part of helping the, the kind the health and social care research world understand what art therapists can offer, beyond-.
We are quite a misunderstood profession and we spend quite a lot of our careers, all of us, explaining what art therapy is and isn’t. And I think what I’d like to do is to kind of be able to explain, not only what art psychotherapy is and isn’t as a clinical intervention, but what the, what art therapists have as skills that are useful in their own research world. So how we could be helpful for research teams in facilitating workshops in a safe, ethical way, with vulnerable groups particularly. So I’ve been asked to, you know, get involved and support other people’s studies because they’ve wanted a bit of that. So, you know, where I’ve got a colleague who’s a nurse, and she said, “Will you co-facilitate,” because then I’m kind of almost covering that bit if you like, I’m covering that, that side of things that so that’s quite interesting ‘cos, you know, it’s not traditionally what we’ve done, but absolutely what we could do.
A part of what we could do.
Mentorship, supervision and networking
Jed thought differently about his professional identity at different times during his doctorate. He reflected on some of the things that art psychotherapists could bring to health research.
Jed thought differently about his professional identity at different times during his doctorate. He reflected on some of the things that art psychotherapists could bring to health research.
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We are quite a misunderstood profession and we spend quite a lot of our careers, all of us, explaining what art therapy is and isn’t. And I think what I’d like to do is to kind of be able to explain, not only what art psychotherapy is and isn’t as a clinical intervention, but what the, what art therapists have as skills that are useful in their own research world. So how we could be helpful for research teams in facilitating workshops in a safe, ethical way, with vulnerable groups particularly. So I’ve been asked to, you know, get involved and support other people’s studies because they’ve wanted a bit of that. So, you know, where I’ve got a colleague who’s a nurse, and she said, “Will you co-facilitate,” because then I’m kind of almost covering that bit if you like, I’m covering that, that side of things that so that’s quite interesting ‘cos, you know, it’s not traditionally what we’ve done, but absolutely what we could do.
A part of what we could do.
Many people valued the mentorship and supervision they received. Some, like Ginny, continued to work with their supervisors or mentors. Gavin (a podiatrist) and Graham (a paramedic) valued having supervisors, mentors and wider research teams with varied professional backgrounds. In part, the diversity of backgrounds was needed because research in their own disciplines was small but growing.
Peer mentorship and support was also important. Katherine felt she missed out on this as she was doing her PhD ‘at distance’.
My supervisor, so my doctoral supervisor was also the supervisor for my internship, and she’s a speech therapist by training, and is now a professor. And she’s been really supportive of me throughout. So, she’s sort of been my supervisor and my mentor. She’s really helped me think about opportunities that the research might present to me. She’s been, she’s really good at networking, so she’s great at sort of putting me in touch with different people, as and when I visit university. And we have quite a good relationship in that she seems to really understand where my strengths and areas for development lie, and she’s quite sensitive to my reactions to things. She knows when I’m going to be overwhelmed by something and will tend to sort of take that off the agenda. So I’ve got a good relationship with her, and she’s helped me put together a really good supervisory team for the project.
And I’ve got clinical supervisor within that team whose got lots of research experience and he’s really great at seeing things through a sort of pragmatic clinical lens. And I’ve also got a sort of very experienced researcher, or a couple of researchers on the team who bring me specific research skills. And again, are really good at looking at things from an academic lens, and through the processes that I’m going to need to engage in, in order for the research to be of value I suppose and rigorous and robust, so I’ve got kind of a really nice balance within that supervisory team, and I consider myself really fortunate to have that, to have a nice sort of balance of skills. And have positive relationships thus far with everyone within my supervisory team.
And so, in terms of recruitment we I mentioned previously that there was a big cohort of people doing their PhD around the same time as me, all this actually sort of benefited us ‘cos there were a number of aphasia projects going on and what happened was that we each project was looking for a slightly different profile of people with aphasia. So, for example my research was about people with very severe aphasia, so people almost unable to express themselves verbally, whereas other people were doing research for people who might have better spoken abilities but had difficulties with reading for example. And a number of others in between, a number of other kind of studies around aphasia in between.
So, at the time of recruitment we, we did a little roadshow, going out around visiting the different community stroke groups and we had like a little booklet, a little menu of different projects offering a variety of different research, and that might be suitable for different people. And that was a really lovely way to work actually because it meant that we could share the load of going out and speaking to people about the, the research, but also that we could present research that wouldn’t necessarily exclude people from the group when we approached them. So yeah, so we ended up with a big sort of collaborative co-operative research drive, and that’s that investment at that time I think has led to us having a very a very good community of research participants that are now connected to us at the university here, so the investment at that time and, and the subsequent involvement in research. And anybody who was happy to stay connected with us at the end of that research project, or who was interested in doing more could, would agree for us to contact them if future relevant research came up.
Managing workloads
Katherine was very positive about her supervisor and mentors.
Katherine was very positive about her supervisor and mentors.
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And I’ve got clinical supervisor within that team whose got lots of research experience and he’s really great at seeing things through a sort of pragmatic clinical lens. And I’ve also got a sort of very experienced researcher, or a couple of researchers on the team who bring me specific research skills. And again, are really good at looking at things from an academic lens, and through the processes that I’m going to need to engage in, in order for the research to be of value I suppose and rigorous and robust, so I’ve got kind of a really nice balance within that supervisory team, and I consider myself really fortunate to have that, to have a nice sort of balance of skills. And have positive relationships thus far with everyone within my supervisory team.
Abi met other speech and language therapists who were undertaking PhDs at the same time. They had shared interests and teamed together to visit stroke clubs where they could discuss their research.
Abi met other speech and language therapists who were undertaking PhDs at the same time. They had shared interests and teamed together to visit stroke clubs where they could discuss their research.
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So, at the time of recruitment we, we did a little roadshow, going out around visiting the different community stroke groups and we had like a little booklet, a little menu of different projects offering a variety of different research, and that might be suitable for different people. And that was a really lovely way to work actually because it meant that we could share the load of going out and speaking to people about the, the research, but also that we could present research that wouldn’t necessarily exclude people from the group when we approached them. So yeah, so we ended up with a big sort of collaborative co-operative research drive, and that’s that investment at that time I think has led to us having a very a very good community of research participants that are now connected to us at the university here, so the investment at that time and, and the subsequent involvement in research. And anybody who was happy to stay connected with us at the end of that research project, or who was interested in doing more could, would agree for us to contact them if future relevant research came up.
While some people undertook qualifications or development schemes full-time, others were part-time. Several people continued to have research delivery roles, clinical non-research roles, took on research capacity building roles, and/or had family commitments to manage. For some, maintaining involvement other clinical activities in addition to research was important. Laura X’s had been worried about becoming de-skilled in her internship as a result of reduced clinical time.
Many people commented on the difficulties of maintaining a reasonable workload. Vicky found the boundaries of working hours became blurry during her PhD. Michael described the workload of his PhD as “exhausting”, especially when he combined this with a job supporting new research staff for two days a week. Sanjos used his annual leave to attend taught sessions for his MSc (Master of Science) degree and often worked on it in evenings or weekends.
Having a suitable place to carry out the work of academic research qualifications or development schemes could be complicated too. Laura X found it difficult to focus when she tried to work on her research proposal at home, and preferred to go to a library or into her workplace. Gavin said it worked best for him when he “separated out my research space from my clinic space” and to allocate days to focus on either clinical non-research or academic activities. He encouraged others in similar situations to also consider this arrangement.
It was good to be honest, I enjoyed it. ‘Cos I got to do a bit of everything and you don’t-, when you do something all the time, if you’re doing clinical all the time, then you can get burnt out, you can, you know, it can get to you after a while. If you’re doing academia all the time, if you’re studying all the time, that then also takes its own toll but in a different way. Being able to do a bit of both, gives you a relief, you know, when you, when you’ve had a bad day clinically you’ve then got a research day the next day, which gives you a chance to recover. When you’ve had your head buried in the books for a week and you can’t see what you’re doing and can’t think straight, to actually go out and get hands on with some patients and then have to deal with something on that side gives you a relief in a different way and to think about it, and perhaps re-invigorate why you need to go back and do the learning. And I think the two complement each other, if it is a difficult juggling role.
Mm. Mm. Yeah.
But I think that’s something we, we need to develop. We need to develop-, if we want people to go down this route, we need more hybrid type roles, we need this clinical academic role, and that’s something I think we’re only just really sort of exploring.
It’s, I’ve found it quite difficult at the start to switch from one to another. And I spent a while thinking oh this would have been better full time, so I could have done all the study, or all work. And I think that’s kind of to do with the way that the course is designed. It’s very heavy upfront, and then it sort of quietens off a bit. But I found it very difficult to, not very difficult but it was a challenge to change my brain from study back into work mode again and getting into the whole swing of being at work, and, and that kind of thing. It’s absolutely fine now, not a problem at all but it, at the beginning I did find that quite tricky. But then I think at the beginning of anything new, I, so I was the only full-time member of the team, so I was the one that kind of had oversight of everything, purely by the fact that I was there all the time. And when I’m then out of it for 50% of the time, that person with oversight is, has gone. And that’s difficult on both sides I think. It’s difficult for me because I’m used to being that person, it’s difficult for the team who are used to having me as being that person. So, I think, you know for everybody at the beginning it was a bit of a you know transitional period really, of getting used to it being different.
It didn’t take that long really for it to you know become a lot, lot easier and to be able to just sort of switch from one to another.
Footnotes
Graham felt it was beneficial to continue working as a paramedic whilst he was undertaking his PhD, even though it could be a “juggle” at times.
Graham felt it was beneficial to continue working as a paramedic whilst he was undertaking his PhD, even though it could be a “juggle” at times.
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Mm. Mm. Yeah.
But I think that’s something we, we need to develop. We need to develop-, if we want people to go down this route, we need more hybrid type roles, we need this clinical academic role, and that’s something I think we’re only just really sort of exploring.
Libby found it was quite an adjustment to be out of her research physiotherapist role for half of the time whilst undertaking a Master’s.
Libby found it was quite an adjustment to be out of her research physiotherapist role for half of the time whilst undertaking a Master’s.
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It didn’t take that long really for it to you know become a lot, lot easier and to be able to just sort of switch from one to another.
*The people interviewed for this website were mostly research NMAHPs (i.e. those employed in a research delivery role). However, we also interviewed some NMAHP researchers (i.e. those leading research as independent researchers). The latter group included people who were undertaking or had completed academic research qualifications, such as PhDs, and many had previously been in (or continued to also be in) research delivery roles. For more information about the distinctions between these roles and the sample of NMAHPs interviewed for this project, please see the Introduction section.
*Many research NMAHPs and NMAHP researchers felt strongly that they continued to be clinical within their research roles. As such, the wording of ‘research’ NMAHPs/staff and ‘clinical’ NMAHPs/staff can be problematic for implying that research is not also clinical activity. Where the wording ‘clinical staff’ is used on the website, we mean for this refer to non-research clinical staff (i.e. those who are not currently employed to carry out research or enrolled to pursue research through an academic qualification).
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