Recruitment Role Profile Form
Job Title: Research Associate/Fellow in Patient Safety and Improvement
School/Department: Nottingham University Business School – East Midlands Academic Health Sciences Network.
Salary: £25,513 - £37,394 (minimum salary with PhD is £27,864)
Job Family and Level: Research and Teaching Level 4
Contract Status: This post will be offered on a fixed term contract until 31st January 2018
Hours of Work: 36.25 hours per week
Location: Nottingham University Business School (Jubilee Campus) and East Midlands AHSN offices (Institute of Mental Health, Nottingham)
Reporting to: Justin Waring, Professor of Organisational Sociology (Nottingham University Business School)
Cheryl Crocker, Patient Safety Collaborative Regional Lead, East Midlands Academic Health Science Network (EMAHSN)
Background & Introduction
Nottingham University Business School (NUBS) is a leading and active partner in a portfolio of applied health services research, including studies funded by Department of Health, NIHR, the Health Foundation, especially in the area of Improvement Science, and with partners, such as Nottingham University Hospitals and Alliance Boots. The School’s research in the organisation and management of healthcare services reflects research excellence, especially enterprise and innovation, operations management, risk management, organisational learning, and strategic leadership. Building on this, the School has established the Centre for Health Innovation, Leadership and Learning (CHILL). CHILL is a collaborative, multi-disciplinary research centre, and leads and delivers on NUBS’ capacity building and collaborative strategy for applied health organisation and improvement research.
East Midlands Academic Health Science Network (EMAHSN) is one of 15 networks across England established to achieve the overall goal of improving patient and population health outcomes by translating research into practice and developing and implementing integrated health care systems. The key objectives of the EMAHSN are to: 1) focus of the needs of patients and local populations, through supporting and working in partnership with commissioners and public health bodies to identify and address unmet clinical needs, whilst promoting health equality and best practice; 2) build a culture of partnership and collaboration, through promoting inclusivity, partnership and collaboration to consider and address local, regional and national priorities; 3) speed up adoption of innovation into practice to improve clinical outcomes and patient experience, through supporting the identification and more rapid spread of research and innovation at pace and scale to improve patient care and local population health; 4) create wealth through co-development, testing, evaluation and early adoption and spread of new products and services.
Purpose of the Role:
The purpose of this role will be to have specific responsibility for translational research activities within the East Midlands Academic Health Sciences Network (EMAHSN) in relation to the newly formed Patient Safety Collaborative (PSC). The role combines rigorous academic knowledge and expertise in patient safety research, with the proven capacity to engage and work collaboratively with NHS and other service providers, from senior executives to frontline clinicians. Its broad remit will be to support and facilitate the translation of knowledge and evidence into improved patient safety, through partnership, co-development, and adoption of evidence based practice. In undertaking this work, the successful candidate will shape and develop the clinical and application themes of the PSC. The candidate will also be expected to carry out their own research studies, and write for publication.
In additional to being a core member of the PSC team, the successful candidate will be expected to be an active part of the wider research team at CHILL, where they will have the opportunity to use their initiative and creativity to identify further areas for research, develop research methods and extend their research portfolio.
Main Responsibilities / % time per year1. / Provide project advice and research consultancy across the PSC to ensure internal audits, research studies and innovation projects are informed by appropriate evidence, are based upon appropriate conceptual frameworks and follow robust methods (i.e. research scans and synthesis, research design support, and on-going project mentoring). / 15
2. / Undertake formative and summative evaluations to PSC change programmes and innovation cycles, including the design, management and undertaking of independent appraisals of improvement projects (i.e. small scale evaluations and qualitative enquiries of local change projects). / 20
3. / Gather and appraising evidence by completing literature searches and rapid reviews of the evidence. / 20
4. / Effectively and clearly communicate information on patient safety innovations and evidence that can benefit patients using a range audience appropriate media, in collaboration with the AHSN Communications Team. / 5
5. / Support capacity building, for example, providing training/facilitating events to support the translation of research into practice. / 5
6. / To support partners with rapid evaluation/audit to assess the need for system level change and/or the impact of any change on service delivery. / 15
7. / Support service innovation and improvement through working with service leaders and providers to better define, assess and respond to the nascent challenges of patient safety service improvement (i.e. stakeholder analysis, or utilising the creative problem-solving methodologies to support innovation and change). / 2
8. / Support the translation and diffusion of patient safety evidence into practice through engaging and working collaborative with care providers at all levels to support learning, innovation and change (i.e. production of learning resources). / 10
9. / Attend existing networking events to promote PSC work and to learn about developments across the East Midlands. / 5
10. / Other such comparable duties as may be required by the PSC lead and CHILL Director. / 3
Through these activities the Research Associate/Fellow in Patient Safety and Improvement will support the PSCs work in the translation of patient safety knowledge and innovation into practice, and will contribute to academic learning on patient safety improvement theories. As such, it is expected that the role will develop and contribute to robust academic outputs (with academic support) and make a sustained impact on service delivery.
Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications & Experience
Essential / DesirableQualifications/ Education / PhD (or near to completion) in social sciences, implementation or improvement science, or the equivalent in professional qualifications and experience in research area. / Masters degree, or equivalent in social sciences.
Postgraduate training in social research methods/theories.
Skills/Training / Excellent oral and written communication skills, including the ability to communicate complex information with clarity.
High analytical ability to analyse and illuminate data, interprets reports, evaluate and criticise texts and bring new insights.
Ability to synthesise and disseminate evidence for stakeholders (in appropriate style and language).
Ability to creatively apply relevant social science theories, approaches, techniques and methods to research data.
Ability to assess and organise resource requirements and deploy effectively in meeting research and team objectives.
Interact sensitively & professionally with senior level practitioners, managers, policy-makers.
High quality writing for academic & practitioner audiences, with evidence of ability to publish at national and international level (to include conference and working papers).
Ability to build relationships and collaborate with others, both internally and externally. / Experience of using software packages for qualitative data analysis
Experience of mixed methods research.
Ability to foster a research culture and commitment to learn from others
Experience / Experience of working in patient safety and improvement work.
Experience of knowledge translation activities.
Experience of service evaluation and improvement work.
Experience & knowledge of health care systems, as well as research experience in these areas.
Experience in use of research methodologies and techniques to work within area, including social science methods and theories.
Experience of capacity development training (in areas such as qualitative and quantitative methods, writing, knowledge translation skills, evaluation frameworks, building networks). / Experience and knowledge of public services research, including working across organisational & professional boundaries in the public/voluntary sector.
Knowledge of implementation research and improvement science.
Experience of developing new approaches, models, techniques or methods in research area.
Statutory/Legal / DBS Enhanced Clearance.
Other / Ability to work autonomously & exhibit initiative.
Excellent written & verbal communication & presentation skills.
Ability to work to deadlines and prioritise tasks.
Ability to work well in a team.
Willingness to travel across the East Midlands and beyond and access to own transport.
March 2015
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