Eleanor Jackson Bowers, PHC RIS
Over the last three years PHC RIS has been developing a research program looking at the impact of primary health care research and how this can be assessed. The latest stage of our work is now approaching completion.
In this project we used an on-line questionnaire to ask the Chief Investigators of 17 large primary health care research projects about the impact of their work and how this had been achieved.
We found that the projects had many impacts. Most frequently they led to staff development (15 projects) and further research opportunities (11) and provided information for government (13) or organisational decision making(11). Less frequently the findings were used in government (4) or organisational decision making (8), education (9), professional practice (7) or service development (7).
While these projects produced 39 journal articles, researchers considered interpersonal connections were more influential in achieving impact. Collaborative research, personal connections with those with influence and conduits into decision making processes were the channels by which impact happened.
In the course of developing and undertaking a research project many connections are formed between researchers, participants, policy makers, health care organisations, professional organisations, practitioners and the community which become stakeholders in the research. These connections may be facilitated by intermediary organisations, such as the RACGP, which provide a networking hub. Through involvement in research which addresses their needs and concerns, stakeholders gain a personal interest in seeing the results used and concepts become embedded in organisational and professional practices to the extent that they become accepted ways of working.
The project raised a number of methodological and conceptual issues in the assessment of research impact. The final report from Stage 2 of the Primary Health Care Research Impact Project: Pathways to Impact will be published on the PHC RIS website soon.
Eleanor Jackson-Bowers
P: 08 8204 3136
E: eleanor.jacksonbowers@flinders.edu.au
|
print version
email this page
