Assessing research capacity and culture in St. John of God Health Care Allied Health Professionals
Sangeeta Rathi1,2, Dave Parsons1,3, Rachel Resuggan1
1St John of God Health Care,
2University of Notre Dame,
3Curtin University
Abstract
Objective: To provide a benchmark assessment of research capacity and culture (RCC) of allied health professionals in St John of God Health Care, including the identification of actual and perceived barriers and facilitators to staff participation in research.
Methods: All allied health professionals across 16 sites were invited to participate in an online survey of the Research Capacity and Culture tool from 9th May to 17th June 2022. Descriptive analysis of each demographic variable was expressed in frequencies and percentages. Differences between organization, team and individual domains were analysed as ordinal data (scale 1 – 9) and a mean score and SD was calculated.
Results: The survey was completed by 182 allied health professionals across all sites. Overall results identified low levels of research support or skills at organisational and team levels and moderate level of skills at an individual level. Respondents were motivated to participate in research ‘to develop skills’, ‘increased job satisfaction’ and ‘career advancement’, and major barriers to participation in research were ‘lack of time’, ‘resources’ and ‘other work roles take priority’.
Conclusion: The current study fills a knowledge gap by reporting the research capacity and culture among allied health professionals in a private health care sector. Our study suggests allied health clinicians in private health care organisations perceive less than adequate level of support at the team and organisational levels as compared to their public counterparts. However, the barriers and motivators to participate in research activities were consistent with the public hospitals.
Biography
Sangeeta Rathi is currently working as Group Allied Health and Rehabilitation Research Lead at St John of God Health Care. She is also an adjunct senior Research Fellow at the University of Notre Dame. Prior to this role, she was working clinically as a physiotherapist for nearly 15 years. Sangeeta completed her PhD from La Trobe University in 2018. She is passionate about building research capacity and promoting a culture of evidence based practice and research translation in allied health workforce, specifically in private health care sector.