Series: Public engagement with research. Part 3: Sharing power and building trust through partnering with communities in primary care research

Abstract

Background

This article focuses on potential strategies to support primary care researchers in working in partnership with the public and healthcare professionals. Partnership working can potentially to improve the relevance and usefulness of research and ensure better research and health outcomes.

Discussion

We describe what we mean by partnership working and the importance of reflecting on power and building trusting relationships. To share power in partnership working, it is essential to critically reflect on the multiple dimensions of power, their manifestations, and your own power. Power can influence relationships and therefore, it is essential to build trust with partners. Next, we outline how the context of primary care research and decisions about who you work with and how to work together, are vital considerations that are imbued with power. Lastly, we suggest different ways of working in partnership to address different dimensions of power. We provide examples from primary care research across Europe regarding how to recognise, tackle, and challenge, invisible, hidden and visible power.

Conclusion

We conclude by proposing three calls to actions to encourage researchers working in primary care to consider the multiple dimensions of power and move towards partnership working. First is to use participatory methods to improve the inclusivity of your research. Second is to include patients and the public in decisions about the design, delivery and development of research and its outcomes. Third is to address various systemic and institutional barriers which hinder partnership working.

KEY MESSAGES

• Partnership approaches to primary care research can potentially improve the relevance, usefulness and inclusivity of research.

• Working in partnership involves researchers and the public sharing power in important research decisions and building trusting relationships.

• Recognising and addressing power differentials and building trusting relationships requires time and effort.

Keywords:

• Participatory research
• public engagement
• Co-production
• power sharing

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Additional information

Funding

We thank Natacha Bolaños, Lymphoma Coalition Europe, for her contribution to the initial conception of the article. Jess Drinkwater, Clinical Lecturer, is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). Michelle Farr’s time is supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research Applied Research Collaboration West (NIHR ARC West). Steven Blackburn is part-funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Research Support Service and NIHR Birmingham Biomedical Research Centre on Inflammation. The views expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.