Choosing a project type

Research is the process to provide evidence to support, refute or develop a hypothesis about how something works or behaves. Health research aims to understand health conditions and also find out what happens if we change clinical practice in a systematic way. Research can also explore people's views, opinions and experiences to understand what treatments and models of care work best. These key questions can help you decide if your project is research:

• Will your study generate evidence to support, refute or develop a hypothesis?
• Will the results be generalisable (will they apply) beyond the population in the study?
• Does your study involve randomisation or changing clinical practice?
  
  

Getting approval for research

All research taking place in the NHS must both be assessed by the Health Research Authority (HRA) and receive confirmation from the R&D Office at each proposed NHS site before work may begin. This applies to all research conducted in the NHS, including work undertaken by students, and there is currently no fast track process for either HRA or Trust approval.  Applications should be submitted through CPFT's Research and Development Office: RandD@cpft.nhs.uk

The HRA has produced  this helpful toolkit to help you answer questions such as ‘Is my study research?’ ‘Is my research being carried out in the NHS and needs NHS approval?’ and ‘Do I need an NHS REC Review?’ Although originally designed for students, it is quite helpful for all researchers when deciding what approvals are needed.

Evaluation is a type of study which uses research methods in a systematic way to judge the quality or worth of a health service or intervention, providing evidence that can be used to improve it. An evaluation provides practical information to help decide whether a development or service should be continued or not. Evaluation also involves making judgements about the value for money of the service or treatment being evaluated.
These key questions can help you decide if your project is an evaluation:

• Does your study provide practical information to help decide whether a specific health service should be continued or not?
• Does your study aim to make judgements about the value of the current service or care being assessed?
  

Getting approval to start an evaluation

Anyone wishing to conduct an evaluation or clinical audit should visit CPFT's Clinical Effectiveness team page on the Trust intranet and contact them at: ClinicalEffectiveness@cpft.nhs.uk

Clinical audits are directly related to improving services against a standard that has already been set, such as Care Quality Commission (CQC) standards. Audits are essentially about comparing what should be happening with what has actually happened. It is a way to find out if care is being provided in line with high standards and shows care providers and patients where their service is doing well, and where there could be improvements. These questions can help you decide if your project is a clinical audit:

• Does your study aim to explore whether healthcare is provided in accordance with the approved policies and standards?
• Does it measure care provided against a pre-determined standard?
• Does your study aim to find out where improvement can be made in a particular healthcare service?

Getting approval to start a clinical audit

Anyone wishing to conduct a clinical audit should visit CPFT's Clinical Effectiveness team page on the Trust intranet and contact them at: ClinicalEffectiveness@cpft.nhs.uk

A case study is an in-depth analysis and systematic description of one patient or group of similar patients to promote a detailed understanding of their circumstances. The illustrative 'grand round', 'case report' and 'case series' have a long tradition in clinical practice and research. Presenting detailed accounts of one or more patient experiences or clinical presentations aims to provide deeper insights into aspects of a condition, treatment or care pathway to illustrate broader learning. These questions will help you decide if you need to do a case study:

• Does your study involve an in-depth analysis and description of one patient or group of similar patients in a natural real-life scenario to provide a detailed understanding of their circumstances?
• Is your project focused on describing clinical care and experiences of clinicians regarding a particular case, service development or policy?
  
  

Getting approval for a case study

Please contact RandD@cpft.nhs.uk for more information and guidance.

A literature review is a summary of previous research on a topic. Literature reviews survey academic journal articles, books, and other sources relevant to a particular area of research or interest. Within the review, the author provides a description, summary and critical evaluation of each source, looking at the strengths and weaknesses. The literature review may also identify gaps or controversies in the literature and topics needing further research. These questions will help you decide if a literature review is needed:

• Do you aim to summarise and critically evaluate previous research on a specific topic?
• Does it involve surveying academic papers, books, and other sources relevant to the particular area of study?
  
  

Getting approval for a literature review

If a literature review does not contain any data from CPFT sources, it does not require any governance approval from the Trust. If it is linked to a case study, please follow the guidance above and contact RandD@cpft.nhs.uk for advice and guidance.

Quality Improvement (QI) is all about problem-solving. It goes beyond traditional management, target setting, and policy making. QI methodology is best applied when tackling complex adaptive problems – where the problem isn’t completely understood and where the answer isn’t known – for example, how to reduce the frequency of violence in inpatient mental health wards. QI projects work with people closest to the issue with lived experience, in this case staff and service users, to identify potential solutions and test them. These key questions can help you decide if you need to start a QI project:

• Does your project aim to make a change or immediate improvement in healthcare provision?
• Does it involve a design that is iterative and flexible (rather than a pre-determined protocol) using a plan, do, study, act process (PDSA cycle)?
• Does your project need the expertise of people closest to the issue (staff and service users) to identify potential solutions and test them?
  
  

Start a Quality Improvement project

Quality improvement is essential to empower staff to improve care flow processes and daily practice, to provide outstanding services and care.  Everyone at CPFT can get involved in quality improvement and learn the skills to improve services and care on our training courses. Find out more on the Quality Improvement intranet page.

Contact the team via qualityimprovement@cpft.nhs.uk