This week, the Coventry HDRC Lunchtime webinar was hosted by Eleanor Hoverd, Research Fellow at the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at the University of Oxford.
Eleanor is working with the Workforce and Learning Research Group as a realist researcher, to improve understanding of workforce challenges in primary care and maternity services, particularly in under-served communities. Prior to joining Oxford, Eleanor completed a National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) clinical doctoral research fellowship. The aim was to understand how well people from Black communities in the UK are included in and take part in health and care research. She conducted her research at the University of Warwick, one of the Coventry HDRC's collaborators. The fellowship was hosted by the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust.
During the webinar, Eleanor presented the research results in the form of a scientific paper, called "Understanding Inclusion and Participation of People From Black African Diaspora Communities in Health and Care Research: A Realist Review. " The study was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research, or NIHR for short.
Eleanor discussed the fact that Black people have worse health than white people. She stated that this is why people from Black communities must be included in health and care research, to make sure that their needs are understood, and their health can be improved. But research shows that not enough people from black communities are currently being included in health and care research. A lot of the earlier research has looked at how Black people take part in health and care research on an individual level. But there are not enough research and evidence that has looked into how people with different backgrounds can be included and encouraged to participate in the health and care research system at a structural level.
The presented research was done in a way that involves different people, a so-called co-production approach. This included sharing power with people from Black communities who work in health and care research, as well as patients and members of the public who identified as being from a Black community. Their lived experiences, which means having first-hand knowledge of their own lives, influenced the whole research project from start to finish. A realist evaluation was carried out. Realist projects try to answer the question, "What works, for whom, how, why and when?", not just if interventions work. It looks at why some things or programmes work in some situations but not in others. The Realist Review collected lots of different evidence on how people from Black communities are included and take part in health and care research.
The realist review was followed by realist interviews with 30 people and four focus groups (groups of people discussing and giving feedback on a topic) also known as a qualitative study. The researchers co-designed a plan for what they wanted to achieve and the values they want to follow and develop for future projects. A set of recommendations has been written for the following people and groups:
- Policy makers
- People who fund research
- People who sit on ethics committees
- Health and care researchers
- Healthcare professionals working on health and care research studies
Missed the webinar or want to know more about Eleanor’s approach? Watch the full recording on YouTube.