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Research training incorporating education and mentoring for rural and regional allied health professionals: An evaluation study

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posted on 2023-08-09, 06:45 authored by OA King, A Wong Shee, Owen HowlettOwen Howlett, Renee Clapham, VL Versace
Introduction and Objective: Building rural health workforce research capacity is critical to addressing rural health inequalities. Research training is a mainstay research capacity building strategy. This paper describes the delivery and evaluation of a research training program for rural and regional allied health professions (AHPs). Design: A mentored research training program was delivered to AHPs employed public health services in rural and regional Victoria, Australia. The program was evaluated using the Evidence-Based Practice Knowledge Attitudes and Practice (EBP-KAP) tool at baseline and 3 months post-training. Semi-structured interviews undertaken at 3 and 16 months post-training explored participants' perspectives of the training, their development and application of EBP and research skills. Survey data were analysed descriptively, and interview data were analysed using a framework approach. Findings: Thirty-four individuals from 14 organisations attended the first workshop and 31 attended the second. Thirty-one participants completed the survey at baseline and nine at 3 months post-training. Sixteen interviews were undertaken with 11 participants, five participating at both time points. Participants had positive EBP attitudes at both time points. Overall, participants' knowledge and incorporation of EBP into their practice, and retrieval of evidence was unchanged 3 months post-training. Themes identified in the interview data were as follows: (1) individual research capacity enhanced through supported practice, (2) organisational factors influence individuals' progression of research and (3) individual contributions towards research capacity within the organisation. Conclusion: A mentored rural research training program promoted the application of EBP skills at the individual level and contributed to organisational research capacity.

Funding

The authors acknowledge and thank the Victorian Department of Health and Western Alliance for their financial support to deliver the training and conduct the evaluation

History

Publication Date

2022-10-01

Journal

Australian Journal of Rural Health

Volume

30

Issue

5

Pagination

12p. (p. 654-665)

Publisher

John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of National Rural Health Alliance Ltd.

ISSN

1038-5282

Rights Statement

© 2022 The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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