Researchers from Sheffield Hallam University and partners have been awarded £4.5 million for a project to improve healthcare in rural and coastal areas, and disadvantaged urban communities.
The five-year Allied Health Professions (AHP) Workforce Research Partnership will aim to improve patient care by ensuring staff in AHP roles, including radiographers, have the right skills and are available when and where they are needed in NHS hospitals, community services, and general practice.
Funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), the project will bring together researchers and NHS partners with patient and staff groups to design new ways of working which will improve patient care, recruitment, retention and job satisfaction.
'Vital contribution to patient care'
Professor of diagnostic imaging education at Sheffield Hallam University’s Centre for Applied Health and Care Research, Julie Nightingale, is leading the project alongside partners at Anglia Ruskin University, University of Lincoln, University of Sheffield, University of Suffolk, University of Leeds and NHS East of England.
Professor Nightingale explained the shortage of staff in Allied Health Professions has a negative impact on patient care and leads to increased waiting times, while also affecting the working conditions and wellbeing of staff. These shortages are worse in rural areas, coastal places, and less well-off communities where it is difficult to attract and retain staff.
She said: “Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) provide essential NHS services across urgent, emergency, acute and community settings, yet their vital contribution to patient care is too often marginalised in a public discourse that often refers only to ‘doctors and nurses’.”
Large scale projects
The first 18 months will see the team deliver four large scale mixed method projects, including:
- The James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnership, to help discover which research questions are most important to focus on
- The Retention project, to find out more about AHP leavers from NHS – who is leaving, where they are going, and why
- The Apprenticeships project, exploring how apprenticeships impact AHP services, what works, and what doesn;t
- A health economics project, developing a prototype computer simulation model to support workforce planning and cost effectiveness.
These projects will commence with a broad focus, looking at all 14 allied health professions, but may narrow down as the project continues.
Radiography partners are heavily involved in this project, with researchers including: Prof Ruth Strudwick, professor in diagnostic radiography at the University of Suffolk (co-investigator); Dr Trudy Sevens, associate head research and innovation at Sheffield Hallam University (funded researcher); Helen McAlinney, South Yorkshire AHP faculty and ultrasound service manager at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals (workforce advisor); and Dr Sophie Willis, associate professor for Allied Health Professions at the University of Lincoln (funded researcher).
Improving quality, organisation and retention
Sheffield Hallam’s AHP Workforce Research Partnership is one of five research partnerships announced earlier in April designed to tackle major challenges facing NHS and social care staff.
The NIHR is investing £24 million into these partnerships to develop and test innovations to improve the quality of health and social care services, improve staff retentions, and tackle issues including workplace stress and high staff turnover.
Professor Lucy Chappell, NIHR chief executive, and chief scientific adviser at the Department for Health and Social Care, said: “Staff are the backbone of our health and care system. The NIHR is stepping up to fund high-quality research to understand our workforce needs better.
“These new landmark research partnerships will generate crucial new research across a range of projects to help improve the quality, organisation and retention of teams, which will in turn improve the quality of care they provide.”
Find out more about the AHP Workforce Research Partnership online here.
(Image: AHP Partnership Logo, via NHS England)