Transferable Practices for Knowledge Mobilization: Lessons from a Community-Engaged Health Research Study

Abstract

Community-engaged health research can have both immediate and lasting impacts, yet is often plagued with various unknowns and unanticipated delays – this can be especially true in hospital settings with older adults. In this informal case study based on the authors’ collective experiences of an unraveling of the research process, the challenges and issues faced in assessing the health benefits of the “Music & Memory” iPod program in a complex continuing care hospital wing are discussed. Specifically, the lessons learned through the processes of acquiring ethical approval to work with a particularly vulnerable population, of effectively measuring the benefits of the program, and of the day-to-day logistical issues are recounted, with suggestions for overcoming these challenges through transferable practices for working with vulnerable or older adults and mobilizing the knowledge gained. Slow and steady wins the race. Aesop (620–564 BC) In The Hare and the Tortoise