‘Things Won’t Improve if they’re Just Left to Fester’: A Qualitative Study Exploring How UK Care home Staff Perceive and Experience Engagement in Health Research

Abstract

<strong>Context:</strong> Care homes are challenging environments in which to conduct research and are under-represented within research literature compared to healthcare settings. This is concerning as research can improve organisational and individual outcomes. Evidence is scant on exploring how care home staff perceive and experience research engagement; the topic requires further inquiry. <strong>Objective(s):</strong> To generate additional insights into how care home staff perceive and experience research engagement. <strong>Methods:</strong> A phenomenological approach using structured micro-interviews with a convenience, snowball sample of 26 care home staff in one care home. An inductive approach using thematic analysis was employed to analyse interview data. <strong>Findings:</strong> Most participants were unfamiliar with research, and cited time constraints, workload, and a lack of opportunity as barriers to participation. Despite their unfamiliarity, participants understood research to mean the attainment of knowledge and recognised positive and tangible outcomes as markers of successful research. Staff were generally unsure what would facilitate their engagement with research, although a few participants highlighted the role of the researcher as a determinant. Many care home staff in this study did not consider research to be part of their responsibility. <strong>Limitations:</strong> The study was limited by being based on one case study organisation, possible selection bias amongst participants, and the inability to transfer findings beyond Cornwall. <strong>Implications:</strong> More needs to be done to engage care home staff in research to improve their overall representation within research. More research is needed across different localities to replicate and validate the findings from this study.