Accurate and timely data demonstrating progress and outputs from research capacity-building activities is key to the successful progression of clinical academic endeavours.
That’s why research leaders at the Newcastle Hospitals engineered a unique and innovative digital dashboard, enabling them to collect and analyse data on research activity which in turn has informed and emboldened their strategic thinking and planning.
Dr Linda Tinkler, Trust Lead for Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Professionals (NMAHPs) Research and Felicity Pope, Clinical Project Co-ordinator were invited to write an article for the Nursing Times ‘A dashboard to capture nursing and midwifery research activity’ to explain more.
Newcastle’s unique and innovative research activity dashboard
“Data is so important,” explained Linda. “Not only to back up what we ask for, when advocating for funding or service development, but in being able to quantify needs, the impact of interventions and solutions, and the resulting progress within the research capacity building agenda.
“National stakeholders also rely on the provision of accurate organisational data to enable the development of meaningful strategies and the subsequent demonstration of impact.”
Linda continued “We needed a solution at Newcastle Hospitals to realise this vision, and with some fab teamwork across different departments, we are now at the start of another exciting journey to optimise the dashboard for maximum impact.”
The concept for the dashboard was driven by a desire to establish a robust way to capture accurate data which would underpin the development of staff research awareness, collaborations and activity within and beyond the trust.
It would also be used as a forward planning tool, furnishing the NMAHPs research team with the ability to demonstrate the impact of the increasing research development opportunities made available thanks to the dedicated research priority within the Newcastle Hospitals’ NMAHP Strategy (2022).
Scoping, refinement then launch
During early scoping sessions from 2018 to 2019, Linda worked closely with IT software development colleagues to initially define requirements. Following the build, a period of testing, fixing and refinement the team eventually saw the launch of the dashboard in 2022.
“At this time, the Business Information team linked the app to our established reporting system Power BI, which now generates a range of visual reports,” adds Linda.
“Although still in its infancy, the dashboard has already proven to be a powerful tool with considerable potential to inform and advance the capacity and capability building research agenda. It enables increased understanding of and ability to report on the often unseen resources and infrastructure required to sustain this agenda.”
Future-proofing a research active culture
The dashboard will be pivotal in future proofing not only the NMAHP Research Team as a service, alongside the strategic planning of its work, but it will ultimately support individuals to connect and track their journeys, ensuring the longevity of a research active culture within NMAHPs at Newcastle Hospitals.
The unique, live and prospective nature of the dashboard enables the team to support individuals across their often lengthy research journeys, from tracking the earliest contact with the team, to the development and outcomes of funding applications, to other key research activities, support accessed, and knowledge and skills developed.
It has the potential to connect research active clinicians across settings, roles and career stages, contributing to a thriving research culture across the trust.
