Building Social Work Practitioner Research Capacity in a Health Service: An Inquiry

This article shares the findings from a Canberra Health Services social work initiative that helped improve the research capacity of participating staff. A co-operative inquiry approach with a mixed methodology that included the Research Capacity and Culture measurement tool (RCC) and the streams of consciousness technique were used. This initiative aimed to identify the barriers and enablers/motivators for social workers at the health service to undertake research, and to evaluate whether the implementation of these identified enablers/motivators would support research activities. A review of the literature confirmed the key barriers to social work practitioner research as a lack of confidence, time, and resources. The findings from the initiative confirmed that quarantining time, mentoring, support, and research approaches consistent with social work knowledge and ethics were enablers/motivators. Reflecting on and enacting these enablers/motivators expanded practitioner research and embedded the social work voice into organisational research conversations. The initiative presented is one example of how implementing enablers grows practitioner research. It highlights that teaching methodologies consistent with social work perspectives can help motivate practitioners to conduct research. Managers and academics in other settings can refer to this initiative when arguing for resources to grow the research skill set of practitioners.IMPLICATIONSA social work practitioner research culture within a health setting can be developed by growing social workers’ research capacity.Strategically quarantining time, engaging in mentoring, releasing resources, and using methodologies consistent with social work perspectives will grow the confidence and skill set of practitioners and enable research.