Qualitative research – where to start?! – Here’s some help

“The idea of the qualitative support group was initiated by Dr Kinda Ibrahim who felt that establishing a peer support network for members within CLAHRC Wessex and the wider University could be helpful to facilitate the use and development of qualitative research in health, illness and care.

This group has been massively supported by CLAHRC central team and Professors Cathy Pope and prof Anne Rogers.

The goal of this group is to encourage an intellectually dynamic yet supportive atmosphere for debate and discussion that examines the place of qualitative research in health research, its core concepts and methods.

The group meets every 2-3 months to share experience and research and are looking to possibly organise training workshops to staff, postgraduate and undergraduate candidates who are conducting or interested in conducting qualitative research. The agenda of this group is driven by its members and their interests and needs.

Dr Teresa Corbett suggested starting a “Qualitative journal club” to form the basis of the discussion in our group and has recently put a call out for recommendations for a “MUST READ LIST” for qualitative researchers on Twitter. The response was fantastic with over 50 replies. Many of those who replied on Twitter asked us to share the list with them once it was compiled.

So we have decided to build this dedicated resource to help and advise people”.

We have also started building up a resource that to be shared so that we can look up the best person(s) within our group that could help, advise, and support. If you would like to add your details, please click here

Part One: From Trainee to PhD – Top tips for success

Here at NIHR CLAHRC Wessex we have had the privilege to work with some very talented and determined people who have signed up to become an NIHR Trainee. It’s a demanding process where you are supported to carry out research, normally for a PhD, while continuing often in your day job, be that in the NHS or University. The NIHR has now set up an Academy to support trainees.

More than twenty have made it through the process and we wanted to capture their experience to help others who may be considering the idea. We asked them four questions:

1. What have I got from being a trainee?
2. What advice would you give to someone who’s thinking about applying?
3. How did you manage juggling PhD and work?
4. What is your best single piece of advice

Here is what they had to say..

Learning from failure: lessons from the Checklist project in Wessex – by Dr Kate Lyle and Professor Catherine Pope

Dr Kate Lyle is a Research Fellow based in Health Sciences at the University of Southampton

Professor Catherine Pope is Deputy Director NIHR CLAHRC Wessex

Dr Kate Lyle is a Research Fellow in Health Sciences at the University of Southampton and Professor Catherine Pope (right) is Deputy Director of NIHR CLAHRC Wessex

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As academics, practitioners, and users of healthcare services we are all used to hearing about examples of successful interventions that have improved health services and care.  Indeed one of the core aims of the NIHR CLARHC programme is to improve patient outcomes locally and across the wider NHS. Here in Wessex we have been working hard over the past 5 years to do just that, spreading best practice and evidence based research throughout the NHS.

But what about the things that don’t work? Attempts at service improvement or innovation that went nowhere? Often these are the things we don’t hear about.  Yet, arguably there is as much to learn from our failures, as there is from successful innovations.

Right idea? Wrong time

Domestic violence – How do we measure interventions? Dr Sara Morgan

Dr Sara Morgan with Tracy Rutherford from Hampton Trust in Southampton

Dr. Sara A Morgan is an NIHR CLAHRC Research Fellow in Public Health – based at Southampton General Hospital

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What’s the problem?

Official crime figures from 2013/14 show that 8% of women and 4% of men have experienced domestic violence within the previous year. In the past there has understandably been a strong focus on supporting these victims, but later there was a move to tackle the root cause, involving community programmes aimed at the perpetrators of domestic violence.

“I think there’s always been just the priority being the victim and there’s a lot of sense behind that because obviously those people need to be protected but, unless we actually deal with the source of the problem which is the perpetrator, we’re never going to stop that victim cycle.”

(Interview with stakeholder)

AKI – seeing the bigger picture through sharing data – By Dr Simon Fraser

One of the great things about being involved with CLAHRC Wessex has been the opportunity to engage with other research teams around the country doing similar work. A group of us have been part of a network of people across England, Scotland and Wales who are interested in acute kidney injury (AKI). A challenge with AKI research is that it can be misleading if you don’t use the same methods and definitions to define the condition.

Frailty – a team approach to learning. Dr Melinda Taylor and Dr Alex Recio-Saucedo

Dr Melinda Taylor, Senior Research Fellow in Organisational Behaviour, NIHR CLAHRC Wessex Data Science Hub

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The first blog in this series described how health professionals in our study found it difficult to define ‘frailty’ but agreed that it was an extremely broad concept with no defined boundaries. This has an impact on training in frailty care. This second blog outlines our participants’ views on frailty care training.

Our study evaluated particular aspects of four initiatives intended to enhance the care provided to people regarded as frail. The diverse nature of the initiatives further demonstrates the complex nature of frailty.

How do we support each other with our mental health? Professor Anne Rogers

When people talk about managing mental health the most frequent thing to do is to recourse to self help or looking to services to help.  There is less recognition of the power of social networks for help and support based on connections and reciprocity around us.

Separating out the individual from their need for other people and ability to mobilise resources in order to manage effectively, has meant that the notion of a personal community of support (the array of personal ties with which people are located and embedded) has not tended to be included in understanding or responding to mental health need.

Now there’s a nascent social movement about networks.

Give me more: Why Insulin pumps aren’t just about what the doctor tells you – Claire Reidy

More and more of us are looking online for information to support our health (see Chris Allen’s work on support in Online Communities). In my research, I have found that the ability to get hold of that information and support, which is personal to you, can make a huge difference to how well you are.

I’m focusing on insulin pumps, which are an alternative means to deliver insulin to people with diabetes – compared to the more traditional multiple daily injections.

Insulin pumps have been developed to help people with Type 1 diabetes manage the condition better; both in terms of their quality of life and by more closely resembling a fully-functioning pancreas.

However, introducing a new health technology to an already difficult to manage condition is not necessarily simple, or easy.

The importance of the academic citizen in Health Services Research – Dr Gemma McKenna

It was palpable with research geekery excitement while travelling to Nottingham for the 2017 Health Services Research UK Conference. I needed this, I thought, an opportunity for positivity, to talk enthusiastically about how we as researchers can help sustain the future of the NHS and wider health services. The conference didn’t disappoint.

We are all too aware of the popular rhetoric that consumes newsfeeds and social media channels, with headlines like ‘The NHS is in Crisis’ and ‘too many people are pitching up to A&E’. All doom and gloom. The conference was a perfect antidote to this. While there are no panaceas to these ongoing issues, my fellow health services researchers offered positivity and direction against the troubling backdrop of public service austerity and Brexit uncertainty.

Should Wessex implement ReSPECT process? – The NIHR CLAHRC Wessex hosted event May 11, 2017

The event in Southampton attracted organisations* from across the Wessex region and beyond and a wide range of people including the public, paramedics, nursing staff, clinicians, managers and researchers.

Many stakeholders were represented bringing together 44 delegates, all there to examine and reflect on whether the ReSPECT approach to decision making for emergency care should be adopted.