RESTORE 2 - Work Package 1
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)
IRAS ID
314766
Contact name
Nicola Brennan
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Plymouth
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 5 months, 31 days
Research summary
Currently the NHS routinely provides professional support services for doctors. These provide help, guidance and access to additional training and support for doctors, to help 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. We wanted to find out which ones work, why and how they work, and for whom. This ‘RESTORE 1’ project looked at papers written across the world and produced recommendations giving practical advice to make professional support programmes work better. 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. The professional support team at each NHS site will then implement the changes, after which we will evaluate the modified programme's. Based on these findings we will then produce a toolkit for professional support programme leads to optimise their programmes.
REC name
Wales REC 4
REC reference
22/WA/0127
Date of REC Opinion
9 May 2022
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion