User involvement in the development of research bids
2004
Jones Nicola
Warwickshire National Childbirth Trust Pre-term Support Group
Staniszewska Sophie
Director, Evidence for Practice, National Cancer Institute (NCI) / Royal College of Nursing (RCN)
Dr Sophie Staniszewska leads the research programme at the NHS Centre for Involvement. She is seconded from the RCN Research Institute based at Warwick University where she leads research on patient experiences, evaluations and involvement. She chairs the Evidence, Knowledge and Learning Group of INVOLVE and is a main group member.
The paper documents the process of involving users in the development of a research bid. This bid was developed by a collaboration between the Warwickshire National Childbirth Trust Pre-term Support Group, the National Childbirth Trust, Bliss, the premature baby charity and the Royal College of Nursing Institute. The Warwickshire National Childbirth Trust Pre-term Support Group had significant influence on the study aims, the focus, methods and ethical considerations. As far as possible, a partnership or collaborative model of working was adopted in developing the bid. This was enabled by a number of factors, such as personal commitment of those involved, good working relationships, honesty, core funding for the lead researcher who worked on the bid and the existence of a responsive funding source. A number of key barriers were also identified, which may hinder future researchers and users, such as the lack of funding at this key point in the research process and recognising the time-consuming nature of collaboration. While user involvement in bid development can be instrumental in ensuring the relevance of research, in reality a collaborative approach is difficult to achieve, unless specific support and funding can be found. These barriers need to recognised by commissioning bodies.
« Go back Add to My clippings