Evaluation of the research capacity and culture of allied health professionals in a large regional public health service

Abstract

Purpose

The first aim of this study was to evaluate the current research capacity and culture among allied health professionals (AHPs) working in a large regional health service. The second aim of this study was to undertake principal component analyses (PCAs) to determine key components influencing our research capacity and culture.

Patients and methods

As part of a cross-sectional observational study, the Research Capacity and Culture (RCC) tool was administered to AHPs working in Gold Coast Health to measure self-reported research capacity and culture across Organization, Team, and Individual domains, including barriers to and motivators for performing research. An exploratory PCA was performed to identify key components influencing research capacity and culture in each of the three domains, and the results were compared with the findings of a previous study performed in a large metropolitan health district.

Results

This study found moderate levels of research capacity and culture across all domains, with higher scores (median, IQR) reported for the Organization domain (7,5–8) compared to the Team (6,3–8) and Individual domains (5,2–7). Two components were identified in each domain. Components in the Organization domain included “research culture” and “research infrastructure”; components in the Team domain included “valuing and sharing research” and “supporting research”; and components in the Individual domain included “skills for conducting research” and “skills for searching and critiquing the literature”. These components were found to be highly correlated with each other, with correlations between components within each domain ranging from 0.459 to 0.702.

Conclusion

The results of this study reinforce the need for an integrated “whole of system” approach to research capacity building. Ongoing investment in tailored support and infrastructure is required to maintain current areas of strengths and build on identified areas of weakness at the level of organizations, teams, and individual AHPs, and consideration should also be given as to how support across these three levels is integrated.

Keywords:

• research culture
• infrastructure
• organization
• team
• individual

Supplementary materials

Table S1 Research engagement and support for research

Table S2 Barriers to undertaking research (n=277)

Table S3 Motivators for undertaking research (n=271)

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Leanne Bisset for contributing to the original conceptualization of this project and Ashlea Walker for assisting with data acquisition.

Author contributions

SM and RW conceptualized and designed the project. RW and JM completed the protocol and developed an online version of the survey tool. JM led the data acquisition and descriptive analysis. IH led the statistical factor analysis. All authors contributed to interpreting the data, data analysis, drafting and critically revising the article, gave final approval of the manuscript version to be published, and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.