A Practitioner Research Programme (PRP) is a series of small-scale research projects led by those delivering care for older people. These projects will be conducted by practitioners within our partner organisations: NHS Lothian, Scottish Care, West Lothian Council, Glasgow City Council and Alzheimer Scotland with support from academic researchers at the CRFR and IRISS. It is envisioned that these projects will help support improved outcomes for older people and service improvement.
CRFR and IRISS will support this research through a mentorship programme and targeted research training. Each practitioner researcher will be allocated a mentor from the University of Edinburgh will support the methodological development of the project and provide guidance on relevant literature. An Evidence-Informed Practice mentor from IRISS will support practitioners to use their research findings in their practice, and support the dissemination and use of their research findings both within their service, organisation and wider afield.
Six one day training sessions will also be delivered over the PRP. These sessions will provide support for the co-production and dissemination of research. This will include content on governance and ethics, methods of data collection, analysis, report writing and presentation. The sessions will focus on doing research, sharing experience, developing outputs and evaluating the process.
The PRP will run over eleven months, during which time practitioners will engage in a small scale piece of research directly related to the project’s main theme of care for older people.
A range of outputs are envisioned for this project including:
- A report and briefing paper from each project
- Feedback to the workplace of each participant on the findings
- Added-value benefits from networking with participants from other organisations
- Findings to be fed back to all partners and participants during the final one day joint event
- Targeted dissemination work for each project and overall findings as appropriate.
For more information on the PRP, please contact Catherine-Rose at the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships: cr.stocks-rankin@ed.ac.uk