Abstract
BackgroundRecent initiatives within an Australia public healthcare service have seen a focus on increasing the research capacity of their workforce. One of the key initiatives involves encouraging clinicians to be research generators rather than solely research consumers. As a result, baseline data of current research capacity are essential to determine whether initiatives encouraging clinicians to undertake research have been effective. Speech pathologists have previously been shown to be interested in conducting research within their clinical role; therefore they are well positioned to benefit from such initiatives. The present study examined the current research interest, confidence and experience of speech language pathologists (SLPs) in a public healthcare workforce, as well as factors that predicted clinician research engagement.MethodsData were collected via an online survey emailed to an estimated 330 SLPs working within Queensland, Australia. The survey consisted of 30 questions relating to current levels of interest, confidence and experience performing specific research tasks, as well as how frequently SLPs had performed these tasks in the last 5 years.ResultsAlthough 158 SLPs responded to the survey, complete data were available for only 137. Respondents were more confident and experienced with basic research tasks (e.g., finding literature) and less confident and experienced with complex research tasks (e.g., analysing and interpreting results, publishing results). For most tasks, SLPs displayed higher levels of interest in the task than confidence and experience. Research engagement was predicted by highest qualification obtained, current job classification level and overall interest in research.ConclusionsRespondents generally reported levels of interest in research higher than their confidence and experience, with many respondents reporting limited experience in most research tasks. Therefore SLPs have potential to benefit from research capacity building activities to increase their research skills in order to meet organisational research engagement objectives. However, these findings must be interpreted with the caveats that a relatively low response rate occurred and participants were recruited from a single state-wide health service, and therefore may not be representative of the wider SLP workforce.
Highlights
Recent initiatives within an Australia public healthcare service have seen a focus on increasing the research capacity of their workforce
Respondent demographic information A total of 158 speech language pathologists (SLPs) responded to the survey; due to incomplete responses only 137 responses were included in the statistical analyses, representing an estimated response rate of 42% (137/330)
This response rate is higher than anticipated based on previous research, which has indicated that the median response rate to survey data of this nature to be 26%. [21]
Summary
Recent initiatives within an Australia public healthcare service have seen a focus on increasing the research capacity of their workforce. Integral to the scheme is the idea that clinical staff should receive research training to assist them to critically evaluate and apply new developments to their clinical practice [6] Research capacity initiatives such as those introduced in Queensland are to be applauded; they confirm only that there is an expectation for health professionals to be engaged in research activities. The limited research in this field to date has tended to include multiple health professions in each study leading to a small number of individuals representing each profession [7,8], rather than focusing on any one allied health profession in detail This lack of specific knowledge about the current strengths and weaknesses relating to research engagement within the allied health workforce limits our understanding of what is needed to foster research capacity amongst allied health professions.
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