RESTORE 2 - Work Packages 2 and 3
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Optimising the delivery of existing professional support programmes for doctors: A participatory co-design and realist evaluation approach (RESTORE 2) Work Package 2 and Work Package 3
IRAS ID
319002
Contact name
Nicola Brennan
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Plymouth
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 6 months, 31 days
Research summary
Currently the NHS routinely provides professional support services for doctors. These offer help, guidance and access to additional training and support for doctors, to assist with career development and to remedy problems they may have. Professional support covers a range of activities e.g. communication skills training, mentoring or coaching, resilience training. Research on professional support is generally sparse and, in particular, we do not know enough about how the different approaches to professional support work in the NHS. This could result in professional support being conducted ineffectively, wasting doctors’ time and taxpayers’ money.
We recently completed a project funded by the NIHR to look at different types of professional support programmes and developed recommendations to make professional support programmes work better (RESTORE 1). In RESTORE 2, we will work with existing professional support teams at five NHS sites in the UK. Together with those teams, we will look at the recommendations from RESTORE 1 and identify what changes each would need to make to improve what they currently provide. They will then implement the changes, after which we will evaluate the modified programmes and produce a toolkit to optimise professional support programmes.
Work Package 1 (WP1) will involve working with each site to optimise the delivery of their existing professional support programme based on the RESTORE 1 recommendations using observations and participatory action research (PAR) workshops to develop an action plan.
Work Package 2 (WP2) will involve a realist evaluation of the implemented action plan via semi-structured interviews and an online questionnaire.
Work Package 3 (WP3) will use PAR workshops to develop an ‘implementation toolkit’ containing NHS-specific recommendations to improve professional support programmes in the NHS.
We have already received HRA approval for WP1 (ref. 22/WA/0127). In this application, we are seeking HRA approval for Work Packages 2 and 3.
REC name
Wales REC 4
REC reference
23/WA/0133
Date of REC Opinion
11 May 2023
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion