Research into patient experience
Joanna Goodrich 25 May 2017
This blog by Joanna Goodrich, Head of Evidence and Learning, provides insight into an informal research group which is co-coordinated by The Point of Care Foundation and The King’s Fund. The group consists of researchers who are engaged in, or manage research into, patients’ experience.
Research into patients’ experience is going on in various ways all over the country. Often charities are commissioning research which might not be known to academics, and vice versa. Speaking as a research manager, I have always found it really important to find out what research others have done and what their findings were. More than this though, it’s very helpful to hear what research is currently underway but not yet published, or is in the pipeline, and what the focus will be.
It was with this in mind that The Point of Care Foundation and The King’s Fund together set up an informal group of researchers who are engaged in, or manage, research into patients’ experience. And staff experience – because The Point of Care Foundation’s purpose is “to radically change the way we care and are cared for”.
The practical interventions we teach and support to improve the experience of both staff and patients are grounded in the research evidence which shows that the two are inextricably linked. In fact our first invited speaker in October last year was Professor Jill Maben from King’s College London, who spoke about a three year study she led which looked at the relationship between staff affect and wellbeing and patient experience, and demonstrated that the experience staff have working in the health service directly impacts on the experience patients have. Jill also talked to us about a number of other current research studies in her department and we had a helpful discussion which made connections with research elsewhere. We talked about the tricky issues in research we don’t always get the chance to discuss, and offered advice on how to overcome them.
Our group is intended to bring together researchers and research managers from universities, policy organisations, and the voluntary sector. We have an invited speaker and then plenty of time for discussion. The group meets three times a year after work at The King’s Fund and its purpose is to share information about what we are working on, and to share expertise around methodological and other issues and challenges we might have.
A prime example of the sort of subject we might discuss is how best to recruit patients and involve patients in research and this is something to which the voluntary sector brings experience and expertise. Our meeting in February this year started with a talk from Rebecca Nash, Head of Evidence at Macmillan Cancer support. The chance to hear what kind of research Macmillan is commissioning and managing was valuable for everyone – as one of the university researchers said, “why don’t we talk to each other more often?”
If you are interested in coming to our next meeting on July 27th, which will focus on involving patients in research, please do get in touch with Joanna.
This blog was originally published on the National Voices website on 25 May 2017 and has been republished here with permission. You can view the original post here.