A Realist Evaluation of Social Care Practitioners' Experiences With and Understanding of Applied Healthcare Research

Abstract

Social care practitioners are often under-represented in research activity and output. Evidence-based practice enables social care practitioners to develop/engage the skills to evaluate evidence and be more actively involved in research. REalist Synthesis Of non-pharmacologicaL interVEntions for antipsychotic-induced weight gain (RESOLVE) is a NIHR-funded study where realist synthesis is used to understand and explain how, why, for whom, and in what contexts non-pharmacological interventions help service users, with severe mental illness, to manage antipsychotic-induced weight gain. Social care practitioners are a key part of the team providing care for people living with severe mental illness and therefore supporting antipsychotic-induced weight gain. The current study, RESOLVE 2, uses realist evaluation and RESOLVE as an illustrative example to help understand why and how social care practitioners engage (or not) with research. Semi-structured, audio-recorded interviews will be undertaken with a purposive sample of approximately 20 social care practitioners working with people who have severe mental illness, are treated with antipsychotics, and have experienced weight gain. Participants will be recruited from NHS Trusts and recruitment avenues such as social media and personal networks. Topics discussed during interviews will include barriers and facilitators to engagement in research, current, and past engagement as well as recommendations for researchers and other practitioners. Interview recordings will be transcribed verbatim and analyzed using realist evaluation which will allow in-depth causal explanations for research engagement. Better understanding of research engagement by social care practitioners will allow for evidence-based practice and better patient outcomes within these settings.

Publication DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/00469580241248130
Divisions: College of Health & Life Sciences > Aston Pharmacy School
College of Health & Life Sciences > School of Psychology
College of Health & Life Sciences
College of Health & Life Sciences > Chronic and Communicable Conditions
Aston University (General)
Funding Information: The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This study/project is funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR; HS&DR Program: 131871). The views expres
Additional Information: Copyright © The Author(s) 2024. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
Uncontrolled Keywords: social care,evidence-based practice,severe mental illness,realist evaluation
Publication ISSN: 1945-7243
Last Modified: 02 Dec 2024 09:06
Date Deposited: 29 May 2024 11:21
Full Text Link:
Related URLs: https://journal ... 469580241248130 (Publisher URL)
http://www.scop ... tnerID=8YFLogxK (Scopus URL)
PURE Output Type: Article
Published Date: 2024
Published Online Date: 2024-05-24
Accepted Date: 2024-04-01
Submitted Date: 2023-12-14
Authors: Birdi, Gurkiran K
Wong, Geoffrey
Upthegrove, Rachel
Higgs, Suzanne
Walsh, Annabel
Ahern, Amy
Allen, Katherine
Howe, Jo (ORCID Profile 0000-0002-7567-075X)
Habib, Hafsah (ORCID Profile 0000-0002-5910-036X)
Nixon, Karen
Oduola, Sheri
Maidment, Ian (ORCID Profile 0000-0003-4152-9704)

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