The Application of Research in Clinical Settings

The module aims to:

- Provide you with knowledge and understanding of the application of research in clinical settings

- Enable you to critically appraise operational and strategic issues when conducting and implementing research in practice.

- Explore and evaluate the challenges of undertaking research as a clinician in a practice setting.

You will learn about negotiating clinical and research roles with patients, carers and the multi-disciplinary team; clinical risk and patient safety issues arising from research in clinical areas; informed consent and ethical approval; data protection; managing research protocols; resourcing research and disseminating research findings; leadership and change management.

Who is it for?

This course is for anyone interested in leading research in healthcare settings, who wants to understand and overcome the practical, logistical and ethical challenges involved and develop their research leadership skills. You will require an honours degree, at 2:1 or above, or equivalent.

Timetable

Term 1

Oct: Tuesday 3,10, 17, 24 and 31 October 2023
Nov: Tuesday 7, 14 and 21 November 2023
Dec: Tuesday 5 and 12 December 2023

Benefits

This 15 credit module can be taken alone or as part of the MRes Clinical Research, to develop your ability to design and manage healthcare research that is rigorous, ethical and patient-centred.

On successful completion of this course, you will be able to:

Knowledge and understanding:

• critically evaluate knowledge translation processes
• critically evaluate the use of evidence to manage clinical and professional uncertainty
• critically analyze the principles of ethics and informed consent in the context of clinical research
• critically evaluate issues related to role identity for practitioners conducting clinical research
• demonstrate the ability to develop research questions from clinical practice
• critically evaluate patient safety issues arising from research in clinical settings
• incorporate the patient/service user perspective in clinical research

Skills:

• apply research ethics in the practice setting
• implement evidenced-based guidelines and protocols
• manage the implementation of research protocols in clinical settings
• communicate the evidence base for research and practice to a range of audiences

Values and attitudes:

• advocate patient and carer rights in clinical research
• recognize the role of services users in the design and implementation of clinical research
• maintain patient safety at all times in the context of the clinical research process
• safeguard against the use of coercive recruitment practices in clinical research

recognize the scope and limitations of improvement science.

You will be taught through lectures and seminar discussion groups over ten weeks: (30 hours in total). This teaching will be supplemented by self-directed study using exercises which will be made available via Moodle, the University Virtual Learning Environment.

You will be assessed via a 3000 word reflective essay on how you would operationalize 2-3 aspects of your research, and discussion of the challenges that might present and your intended solutions.

The course is worth 15 credits.

Credits

This course is worth 15 credits toward eligible programmes.

A good honours degree, upper second-class or equivalent. The course is best suited to clinicians working in the health sector; however this is not an essential requirement.

English requirements

For those students whose first language is not English the following qualification is also required:

• IELTS: 7.0

Allen D and Lyne P (2006) The reality of nursing research: policies, practices and processes. Routledge, Oxford.

Berwick DM. (2008) The Science of Improvement. JAMA. 299:1182-4

Fox, M, Martin P, Green G (2007) Doing Practitioner Research. Sage Publications, London