The motivations to move into research as a nurse, midwife or allied health professional (NMAHPs)* varied for the people we spoke to. In addition to talking about the value of NMAHPs to research, they often gave multiple reasons behind their individual decisions to take up a research role. These included factors which ‘pushed’ them away from their previous roles/posts and those which ‘pulled’ them into research.
Michael had come across research nurses when working on cancer wards. He was initially drawn to the working hours but, once in the role himself, found it very rewarding.
Michael had come across research nurses when working on cancer wards. He was initially drawn to the working hours but, once in the role himself, found it very rewarding.
Age at interview: 29
Sex: Male
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If I reflect back on some AML patients we had, so acute myeloid leukaemia, there was a lot of trials called AML18 that ran all over the country, so I was involved in helping with those. So, I knew a little bit about clinical trials, but knew very little-. There would have been this research nurse that would have come up to the ward, maybe once every other day and taken some notes, had a chat with the patient, and then left again. And we were the one who was putting the drugs up. So I kind of thought the research nurse job was, to be honest, a job that somebody in their late 40s, early 50s, who’s worked a hard career and wants a bit of an easier job, that was my honest perception. Now that I’ve worked in that area, and particularly in the early phase clinical trials, I know that is not the case at all and it actually is quite difficult work.
So motivation initially to go into the role was to get back into cancer care and to have a period of life where I could have nice working hours. Motivations now, having worked in it, is that I get to maintain all my clinical skills. If anything, my clinical skills are enhanced because you have to do the, the next level of intermediate life support because the drugs are so unknown and there is so many risks with them that you need to be fully trained and fully aware of what’s happening clinically, and how to manage that. but equally there isn’t really many night shifts. I have had to do two night shifts though. For some of the drugs where we didn’t get to start the drug until late, and then the series of blood tests that you take run on into the night. So there have been the odd night shift but we can, we can cope with that.
So motivations really to stay in it, is that I like the research side and really I get, I get to be a full-blown cancer nurse and in some respects a specialist cancer nurse.
Simona described the combination of ‘push’ and ‘pull’ factors which led her into research.
Simona described the combination of ‘push’ and ‘pull’ factors which led her into research.
Age at interview: 48
Sex: Female
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Well I think it was just a combination of factors, it wasn’t one straightforward answer. So, first of all, I got to that stage-, I loved being clinical. I absolutely love that patient contact, the knowledge that I have clinically, however because of some health issues, I found it more difficult to deal with shift works, work and perhaps even with the manual handling side of the, the job.
And it came an opportunity when one of the surgeons I were working, I was working f-, with had an opening for a research nurse and I was very intrigued because where I’m coming from it was no-, there is still no such thing as a research nurse and I was like ‘oh this sounds quite interesting’, because I always felt I’m-, I mean I have an inquisitive nature so I’m curious about things and I like to learn. And I thought this might be something. And I took it from there. I applied for the job, I got the job and I actually liked it [laughs].
Libby had always been “a questioner” but hadn’t known that research was an activity that was open to physiotherapists.
Libby had always been “a questioner” but hadn’t known that research was an activity that was open to physiotherapists.
Age at interview: 45
Sex: Female
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But I’ve always liked the sort of academic side of things and you know learning more and sort of stretching my limited brain to do sort of a little bit, and I’ve always been a questioner, always. Since I was a child I, you know I always, like why? Why are we doing it this way? Why don’t we do it that way? And I think research, I, to be honest with you I didn’t realise for a long time that you could actually work in research. It didn’t feel like it was something that was available to me. You know you think research is all about people in white coats in labs, and that just, you know I was never particularly into science at school, never thought of myself as a scientist. Before I trained as a physio, I was a musician, I did a music degree. So, you know the, the concept of research as I know it now, no idea that that was out there and available to me as a physio.
And when I found out that it was I couldn’t think of why, you know, anywhere else that I’d rather be really. It really, I mean aside from practically it ticks a lot of boxes, I just, I love the fact that I, every day is different, I like the variety, I like the fact that I work within a, a team of people that are in a way just like me questioning, you know striving to get the best, information, treatment, whatever we’re doing. We all seem to have the same goals. It’s great, I love it.
Although many people were solely employed in research roles (e.g. in research delivery or leading research), some continued to have non-research clinical jobs too*. This was balanced through splits within their job, by combining two separate posts, or bank shifts. Continuing with a mix of research and clinical work was really important for some, although it could be a challenge to get the balance ‘right’. Sometimes the combination was seen as necessary because of the employment arrangements of their research post, including fixed-term contracts and part-time hours.
Wanting a “change”
Many were drawn to research roles in search of a “change”, “challenge”, and something “new” or “different” to do. For some, this meant moving into a new speciality at the same time as adopting a new role. Others were keen to stay in (or return to) a clinical area they had worked in before but to try a different role and develop new skills.
In some cases, the change was about staying in their profession but redirecting their career. Instead of progressing into more senior clinical or managerial routes, research represented an alternative direction. This was important for Gavin, a podiatrist, who felt his specialism had quite a “flat structure career-wise”. For Katherine, pursuing research as a speech and language therapist felt necessary when she relocated to a small Trust in a rural area as “the [career] horizons had shrunk quite a lot”. Research careers were a route for some people to fulfil key ambitions. Osi remembered thinking that she wanted “to be the person… actually writing those [clinical] guidelines as opposed to just the person that’s doing them”.
Others were drawn to research careers out of frustration with their previous careers. Some, like Paul, felt the climate of the NHS meant that they were unable to do their best for patients: “I was a little bit disheartened in nursing”. Abi felt constrained by tight time limits with patients in clinical practice, whereas her research jobs had provided more scope for using her professional skills.
When Layla felt “ready for a change”, her decision to become a research midwife was a gradual one.
When Layla felt “ready for a change”, her decision to become a research midwife was a gradual one.
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And never thought I would do-, move into research at all. It didn't occur to me for a long time. But then gradually I was ready for a change, I'd done the clinical side for a long time, was looking for something new. And then by accident had kind of fallen into doing a bit of work for a nursing journal, which-. So I wrote a CPD article on pre-eclampsia. And as a result of that, that sort of got me a bit more interested in it. Because I was looking at a lot of research and that. And just thinking about things from a different perspective. And I think around the same time I was wanting to make a change career-wise, but wasn't quite sure what. And then - but had been talking to some of the research midwives at work and it all just kind of- it's a bit incremental. It's one of those things, one thing leads to another. And then saw the advertisement for this job on blood pressure self-monitoring and it just seemed sort of the perfect fit with my experience and interests and background. So, that's how I made the move.
Christine hoped that a move into a research job might revive her enthusiasm for nursing.
Christine hoped that a move into a research job might revive her enthusiasm for nursing.
Age at interview: 54
Sex: Female
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I had been a ward-based nurse and was getting to a point where I was feeling a bit frustrated within that role. And within nursing, really. And I didn't know whether it was the role, or whether it was me and nursing and I’d come to the end of the line with it. And was considering leaving altogether. But my love, my passion, has always been [laugh] for nursing and healthcare and making things better for patients really. So I'd met a friend who worked in research. She was a clinical trials assistant. And who knew me personally, not sort of professionally, but knew me personally. And said, “I think research would be really-, you'd really enjoy it”. And I sort of thought, I hadn't really thought about it. And so then I did a bit of research about what research nursing was about. I'd always felt that it was too academic for me, that I wasn't sort of in that sphere of academia, cos I never did a degree, and I'd been very much a hands-on nurse. So I didn't know whether or not it'd be, I'd be able to understand it, or facilitate it and be good at it really. And then I met up with the lead research nurse at where I'm working now and I thought 'yeah, I think I could give it a go'. And I didn't think I would have anything to lose, because if I was going to leave, at least I'd tried to regenerate my enthusiasm for the healthcare system.
So, that was really- it was more a case of it sort of found me really through a friend. And then I had to sort of find out what it was about, because I had no real idea. Cos it wasn't anything I had really looked into it before.
James reached a point where he felt research was the best direction he could take to help patients.
James reached a point where he felt research was the best direction he could take to help patients.
Age at interview: 39
Sex: Male
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So, having spent quite a long time in that acute area as a nurse, I found that - I wouldn't say I'd achieved everything I wanted to achieve, but I found I didn't feel I could go any further. And I didn't feel I could make a difference, staying where I was. So I felt it was time for a new challenge. And I looked at a few different areas. I looked at sort of critical care outreach nursing, which is sort of like responding to acutely ill patients. I looked at sort of a training type role, so resuscitation training. And I looked at research. And I looked at those three areas. And research was the
I felt sometimes standards of care were not, not reaching ideal. Sometimes it was quite substandard. And it was hard fighting against, fighting against the system really, to get what you wanted, to get what's best for your patients. You know, to- To sort of stand up and say 'I want this, I want this, these patients deserve this', and be pretty much told 'we haven't got resources to deliver it that way', you know, 'your ideal isn't realistic'.
And after sort of a long time of finding yourself uncomfortably struggling through that, you kind of think 'well, I can't make a difference, maybe it's someone else's opportunity to get on and have a go - maybe my way isn't, isn't the way to do it, so have a look at making a difference in a different way'.
Working conditions
Pressure and shift patterns in clinical work were a ‘push’ factor for many. Louise felt that, as she got older, the length of shifts and/or working nights became too much. Tabitha found “the clinical world… extremely stressful and it was just too much to be honest”. In contrast, research roles usually meant moving away from shifts and did not usually include weekends or evenings. James and Nikki liked that their roles (in nursing and physiotherapy, respectively) provided flexible working.
Significant changes in people’s lives were also important factors. These included being diagnosed with an illness or injury, redundancy, having childcare arrangements to consider, and family bereavement. For Sugrah, Claire and Simona, the physical demands of clinical non-research work and the hours involved became too much. Ellen found a research nurse post after her ward was closed down with restructuring. Some sought research delivery roles to change their working hours for more flexibility, shorter shifts and/or within weekday daytimes (rather than work frequent weekends, nights and evenings)
Ginny enjoyed research from her midwifery training onwards, but the working hours were a major attraction to her first research nurse job.
Ginny enjoyed research from her midwifery training onwards, but the working hours were a major attraction to her first research nurse job.
Age at interview: 53
Sex: Female
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And when I did my midwifery degree because by that point that’s, midwifery was a degree subject, we did a dissertation for that and I can remember at that point doing a, the reflective essay at the end kind of going I know I’m gonna do, you know, one day I’m gonna do something with my, you know, my own I’m gonna do this research into XYZ. And I’d written a couple, again I sort of started doing wrote a couple of papers and things when I was in midwifery practice and kind of thought oh this is great this is what I want to do which was kind of why I went for that research job, that wasn’t the only reason though to be honest.
So [laugh] one of the, so the research job seemed a really brilliant idea, attractive because of what it was as in doing research in a kind of nebulous way but frankly one of the reasons to do it was to get out of shift work as a midwife which, and I’m in my early fifties now so this was, I was probably early forties I don’t mean it’s just age but it’s certainly-. I did midwifery kind of clinically for about not that long maybe five or six years I guess really by the end and it’s just exhausting and yeah a really, really, really, really hard job and I had children growing up and things like that and I think one of the reasons I wanted to move was to get out of that environment. But it’s not just the kind of physical tiredness about it I think it’s just a really difficult job I completely [laughs] hats off for admiration to anybody who can carry on doing it but it’s so hard. So that was another reason really was to kind of find something to do that wasn’t that shift work, endless repetitive exhausting terrifying work it was doing something else. So I’d love to be able to say it’s all nobly wanting to do research but that wasn’t really the only reason.
Whilst research delivery roles were seen to have several beneficial working conditions, there were also downsides too – including short-term contracts and losing out of ‘unsociable hours’ pay. Although for some, a short-term contract was a motivating factor to initially try a research delivery role; Christine described it as a “get-out-of-jail-free card” and Paul felt positive that he could return to working on wards if he found the research job was not for him.
Views on research and research staff before they started
Some people had been interested in research for a long time. Julie and Rachel X recalled enjoying learning about research in their professional training, others had their interest sparked during a Master’s degree. Jed, Ginny and Alice all recalled knowing that they wanted to pursue research in some capacity in the future. For Gavin, it was a case of finding funding to support him doing so.
However, others had held negative attitudes about research and research staff which initially put them off working in the area. Often people suggested their dislike of research had been rooted in their experiences of education – including their professional training. Some were concerned that research roles would be too difficult or not suited to them; Sandra initially thought it sounded “complicated” and Louise was hesitant about it being overly “academic”.
It could take a while to shed negative attitudes about research. Sian described having a “lightbulb moment” when she realised how exciting health research could be. Some came to see that they could use the skills they had developed practising clinically in a new and productive way through research. Sarah enjoyed the patient contact as a midwife, but felt that being a research midwife would allow her to contribute in a more “strategic” and “goal-oriented” way.
Alison’s motivation to practice midwifery and carry out research went hand-in-hand.
Alison’s motivation to practice midwifery and carry out research went hand-in-hand.
Age at interview: 45
Sex: Female
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What led you to do a Masters?
Well, I suppose it begins before that because really I think it was always programmed to work in research or change. So, the whole drive for me to become a midwife was to contribute to the improvement of women's health globally, which sounds lofty and whatever, a huge sort of task. But my way of doing that was through becoming a midwife because I wanted to have a practical skill, but it wouldn’t end there for me. Before being a midwife I'd done a history degree and I was always interested in contributing some improvement globally.
So, I wanted to match that sort of ideological pursuit with having a hands-on skill, and midwifery's the window through which I've done that.
So, it was always sort of a presumption that I would go into midwifery and want to take part at another level.
Research practice was not presented favourably when Osi was training as a midwife. Even so, she enjoyed her dissertation and wanted to do more research.
Research practice was not presented favourably when Osi was training as a midwife. Even so, she enjoyed her dissertation and wanted to do more research.
Age at interview: 27
Sex: Female
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So in midwifery, only in the last year, when we had a dissertation, and in fact it was introduced horribly. In fact, I remember the lecturer at the time said, she was just like, "I've picked this short straw and I'm going to have to teach you guys research." She goes, "I hate it and you're going to hate, but we just have to do it." And I hated it. Once she said that I was just like 'oh, my gosh,' and I was never really one-, very good at like sitting and listening and staying awake, that was my problem. But as time went on I just thought 'well, I'm just going to have to do it anyway,' and then I thought 'I'm just going to pick a really easy subject,' so I-, easy to what I thought to myself, which was hands-on or hands-off the perineum. And then as I began to read the research and as you're writing the rationale like why you're doing the dissertation-, why you're doing the study, it becomes so-, it became very personal and very relevant, so I was just like 'oh, my gosh.' So I then grew an interest in it and I always knew that I was going to do some-, I didn’t know what in research, but I was just like 'I want to do something like this again, whether it's to write a journal-,' I thought at the time.
Carlos completed a Master’s soon after he graduated as a physiotherapist. This experience further spurred his interest in a research job.
Carlos completed a Master’s soon after he graduated as a physiotherapist. This experience further spurred his interest in a research job.
Age at interview: 26
Sex: Male
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Well it was pretty much after I finished my Bachelors, I got the opportunity to enrol straightaway in a Master’s and I thought that Master’s was post-grad level, so, it wasn’t here, it was in Portugal as I said, and yeah, so it would allow me to have a full-time job and do the Masters on the weekend. The first year was mainly lectures and short projects, and the last year was a project of my own. So what it-, what I did for my Masters was doing an isokinetic evaluation with electromyography and another testing in patients with hamstring strain injuries, with a long lasting injury, at least six months. So I did the project design, data collections, statistical analysis and everything, because it was my project so and there was no funding [laughs], I was funding myself. So I did pretty much everything with support of my- of my professors and my- and my colleagues. And that kind of teased me into research.
Some people became interested in research delivery roles when they spoke to friends and colleagues already working in research. Often people felt that they had had little exposure to research before they took on these roles, so speaking to those with experience could be very informative. They had asked about the day-to-day aspects, and many were pleasantly surprised to learn how enjoyable research roles could be. A few people became interested in research when they cared for patients enrolled on studies.
As a student midwife, Rachel X had been on a placement with a team of research staff.
As a student midwife, Rachel X had been on a placement with a team of research staff.
Age at interview: 28
Sex: Female
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Yes, so I was, I was coming up to qualifying, so yeah in the summer of my third year.
And again, even at that stage I knew that I wanted to do research. So, I think maybe I was very receptive to it, so I really enjoyed it. I think it’s a little bit like marmite though cos I’ve seen that with, with some students that come through now, they either really like it, or they absolutely hate it. I think a lot; some people think they don’t know why they’re there. They don’t really see the point, you know, of doing that. Whereas others they, we had some nice feedback of, some students, saying I never realised that this was a career option, but I’ve, I’m really, really keen to follow this now. So I really enjoyed it, and I, I enjoyed shadowing them, and I enjoyed going around different areas of the hospital and as a newly qualified midwife as I was, so I got a job in [hospital name] but I also did an application for a research midwifery role as a newly qualified midwife, I think slightly naively, cos I thought I really want to do it, and it came up so I thought I might as well apply. And I got an interview, and they said, “Oh we really like you, and we like your enthusiasm, but I think you’d better go and do your first year of midwifery first and then, and then try and look into a research role.” So, it’s, it’s something, every step of the way that I’ve been looking at.
Jo had a friend who was a research nurse whom she asked about the day-to-day activities in the role.
Jo had a friend who was a research nurse whom she asked about the day-to-day activities in the role.
Age at interview: 49
Sex: Female
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I’ve been in the job for six years now before that I was a sister on MAU and I was looking for a bit of a change and a friend of mine was a research nurse who worked in the cancer team and so I asked her about her role and when she told me all about it I just thought 'well that sounds quite interesting, I would quite like to find out a bit more about that’.
Well you see she, I always knew what she did but I was like well can you exactly tell me what on a day to day because I can’t quite understand what you do. And so that’s exactly what she did and she, I said just explained what a typical day is and then I’ll know where you are. And so she told me you know, that they run certain trials looking at different things running treatments, you know, different treatments against standard care and then measuring outcomes and all that kind and I thought oh that sounds, you know, interesting, worthwhile. So maybe it’s something that I could get involved in.
Ella recalled being surprised to learn that nurses could work in research.
Ella recalled being surprised to learn that nurses could work in research.
Age at interview: 56
Sex: Female
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When I was trying to do my registration to work here in this country, because if you've got a registration from another country, then you have to kind of change it. So I had to do kind of a placement in a UK hospital for a few months. Those days, it was just a few months. I think I did it for three months. And then they, they had to assess you and see if your work is actually good. So I did that in [City name], and then I-. When I was doing that, there was a lady who said that she's got a job in research. So I was surprised, that nurses can do research. So I was very curious. So, that was at the back of my mind, but I never acted on it.
Yeah. But I was surprised that a nurse can also do research, because I couldn't see how it would happen.
Because we were used to bedside nursing, or community nursing, just seeing the patients. So, in my mind, I couldn't see where research would fit in that. But obviously I didn't know much about research.
Working in an environment that was welcoming and positive about research was motivating. Nicky was drawn to “being at the forefront” of healthcare. In practical terms, it meant jobs were likely to be available. A research-active workplace also sent out a message that working in research was interesting and valued. When James started as a research nurse, research was still quite new to his Trust and this appealed to him as it “looked as though it was going somewhere and it was going to make a difference”.
Several people had been involved in relatively small research activities when they were working fully clinically, which gave them a “taste” for more. Barbara had valued the opportunity to “dabble in research”. Rachel Y and Nikki talked about getting “the bug”. Graham took on more research opportunities after his secondment ended and whilst still working as a frontline paramedic; this became “an evolution of one thing which led to the other”. Although not the same activity, Dawn’s involvement in an audit kindled her interest in a research delivery role.
Julie had enjoyed her dissertation as an undergraduate. She took opportunities to become involved in auditing initially and then in research data collection.
Julie had enjoyed her dissertation as an undergraduate. She took opportunities to become involved in auditing initially and then in research data collection.
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So the motivation for research initially, so this is really I guess right back in 2000, 2001, was that I’d actually done research as an undergraduate student, so back in, I graduated in 1997, and my, I did a, I was on the, one of the intakes on a degree programme and it was quite new. And we actually had to carry out an undergraduate research project, and I loved it. I really enjoyed it, partly helped because my big focus of interest at the time was cystic fibrosis, and I did a project involved with children and young people with cystic fibrosis, I worked with the CF team here at the hospital and I really enjoyed it. So I always knew that I had an interest in it and I think that’s one of the things that’s perhaps gone from the undergraduate programme, is that opportunity to be involved in research.
And then so when there was an opportunity in 2000, 2001 I took on an audit role initially and again, the-, I know obviously audit is very different to research but the principles about the following a process, examining what you do, looking for improvements – I think those principles do cross over, and so actually that kind of led to that interest. And then I got the opportunity to do data collection for a big study, and it really was data collection, but I really enjoyed it because I like-, I think like a lot of research nurses, we like detail, we like a systematic approach, we like to be able to tick things off lists. It’s a very structured approach to things, and that really appealed to me. So then obviously then I had a period of time where I wasn’t doing research, and, but the idea of getting back into that was quite appealing.
Laura X felt proud to work in a setting that was research-active and supportive of staff pursuing higher education.
Laura X felt proud to work in a setting that was research-active and supportive of staff pursuing higher education.
Age at interview: 37
Sex: Female
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I think it makes you, I mean certainly for me it made me proud to work there because I think that if you’re a, if you’re a big Trust and you’re participating in clinical trials and I think you know that you’re working somewhere quite good. It felt to me that I was working somewhere more distinguished, and more prestigious. That we’d been chosen to roll out a clinical trial. And it’s nice to be in that environment cos you feel like you’re cutting edge. Like when I worked in [City] we never had any of this, like I’d honestly never seen any research and at [Hospital] there was so many trials going on at the one time that it was hard to keep up what, what the criteria was for each trial when you got a new patient in. So, it felt really cutting edge and that we were providing great care.
I’m really lucky because I’m in a department that’s really, that’s got a huge focus on research, and my, the educational lead he wants everybody to be educated to Master’s level, so he is really pro any opportunity that comes up for nurses to have an opportunity to study at Master’s and PhD level. So, for me there’s been huge amounts of support to support my roster around it, and also because he has done a PhD himself it’s actually quite good to have that, to talk about my research proposal in practical terms.
Finding research opportunities
People describe the many different routes into research jobs and/or qualification schemes. A few described having supportive managers or other types of mentors who guided them in this direction, or at least did not stop them from pursuing research interests. Helen and Dawn were “headhunted” by clinician colleagues and encouraged to apply for research posts.
Many had seen advertisements for research delivery jobs in a casual or opportune way – in leaflets, online or health professional magazines. Christine felt that, in some ways, the job “found me” rather than the other way around.
Rachel Y’s manager encouraged her to complete a Master’s degree and helped her to establish a researcher role in radiography.
Rachel Y’s manager encouraged her to complete a Master’s degree and helped her to establish a researcher role in radiography.
Age at interview: 53
Sex: Female
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And then it was really in the sort of late 80’s, early 90’s I had a very supportive manager, who actually supported me to do my Masters. And again, really, we see a lot more people doing that now, but we didn’t really see that so much for what I would call a job in radiographer back in the 90’s doing that. So, I was fortunate. And that was a Master’s in social research because you couldn’t really find, very easily, Master’s courses that were specifically radiography. I think that was a good thing because I actually, being a therapeutic radiographer a lot of what you do is actually with patient experience etcetera, and so right from that very early time I was very much a qualitative researcher. So very much liked interviewing patients, doing sort of grounded theory work, finding out that sort of lived experiences of patients.
And particularly head and neck cancer at that time. So, then I finished that Master’s, and I was still in quite a junior role at that time actually, and again this very forward-thinking manager said to me, “Well what are you going to do with this?” And I really wasn’t sure, I guess I think Abi, up until that point, I, I really didn’t even think I was capable of doing a Master’s, cos you know it wasn’t encouraged really that we would. and she said, suddenly said to me, “Well I think we could make you our research radiographer,” and I sort of said to her, “Well what is one of those?” And she said to me back, “I don’t know, but, but we’ll make it up as we go along,” and that’s what we did really. That role wasn’t really there across the UK before, so it was, it was quite a brave move on her part. And what she allowed me to do was do true research from inception to publication, which again was quite rare. So I mean I’m really thankful for her, for giving me those opportunities. An amazing person really to have that foresight.
Across her thirty year career as a physiotherapist, Karen found ways to carry out research within her clinical job.
Across her thirty year career as a physiotherapist, Karen found ways to carry out research within her clinical job.
Age at interview: 55
Sex: Female
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And then yes so, every clinical job I’ve been in since there’s always something you’re doing where you’re thinking ‘well, why do we do this?’ Or ‘why is it these patients do that?” or, you know, I’ve got a fairly low boredom threshold and I don’t mind hard work and, you know, in the early days you just got on and did it, and you didn’t really need to ask too much permission, I mean most of my, my line managers were, as long as you were doing the job you were paid to do they were quite happy to tolerate you doing this on the side so to speak.
I’ve had people who’ve been supportive just in that almost they’ve turned a blind eye and let me do it, and haven’t interfered, and that is great support, cos the worst thing you need is somebody who’s going to be constantly trying to put you back in your box. So, I’ve been, I had, you know, my early career, several physiotherapy managers who, they knew I was doing this sort of thing, but they didn’t do anything to stop you. I wouldn’t say they did anything particularly to encourage me, but they let you get on and do it, as long as you were doing the rest of your job as well.
Some people had been actively seeking out research delivery job advertisements to apply for. This was the case for Laura Y who had been looking for two years. Libby quickly realised that she needed to be searching for research nurse jobs, as these roles in her discipline of physiotherapy were “few and far between”. Those who had actively searched for research NMAHP roles or routes had tended to do so quite recently, suggesting raised awareness of research delivery roles as a career path in recent years.
Expectations and realities
Often people had had little exposure to research before they took on these roles, so they sometimes arrived with misconceptions. There was sometimes a mismatch between their expectations and the reality once they had started. Claire had not known about the difference between research nurse and nurse researcher roles when she took a job as the former, so she had expected there to be more opportunities for carrying out her own studies. Others had not known what to expect when they moved into research. Many NMAHPs said there had been a process of adapting to their research roles.
Footnotes
*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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