Mapping the difficulties experienced by clinicians and managers in health and social care who are seeking to develop research skills.

In 1994 the Department of Health commissioned project work and reviews to inform the development of a National Strategy to enhance the capacity of the NHS workforce to contribute to Research and Development. This paper reports one aspect of this review: a preliminary study mapping the difficulties experienced by clinicians and managers who sought to develop their research skills. A range of professionals were included in the sample, all of whom had applied for funding to undertake research education or training through a variety of schemes offering differing levels of support. There was a remarkable degree of consistency between the professional groups in terms of their level of training, success in achieving funding and their perception of the difficulties they faced in pursuing funding for research training—which they ranked in the same order of importance. However, two major significant differences arose: nurses and therapists rated their managers as less helpful, and they felt that completing application forms for research training was a skill that they lacked. The ranking of areas of difficulty, and the additional comments made by all respondents highlight issues that need to be addressed within a coherent strategic framework to reduce the difficulties experienced by those professionals wishing to pursue funding for research training.