Expanding postgraduate clinical research capacity: an exploration of key resistances

There have been increasing calls in healthcare for the development of a more robust evidence base. Facilitating research activity amongst clinicians is the primary means of achieving this, although engagement is often undermined by a number of barriers and resistors. This article identifies and explores the forms of resistance that graduates from three postgraduate healthcare education programmes have encountered on their return to practice. This study employed a collective case study approach and gathered data from 29 semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis revealed a range of challenges, both anticipated and unexpected, which related to research engagement. Four forms of resistance were subsequently identified: managerial, medical, organisational and interprofessional. In exploring these forms of resistance, it became apparent that barriers to research engagement are not only contextually determined but also rooted in enduring social perceptions, role insecurity and professional protectionism. The study also found that, whilst research engagement was rhetorically supported, organisations offer very little tangible assistance to potential clinical researchers. A particular type of education has proved manifestly disruptive in this instance, and this disruption will need to be recognised as curricula are adjusted and developed. Further exploring the identified miscommunication between education and practice will also be of particular value to both fields.