Throughout October, we're showcasing our Nottinghamshire Healthcare colleagues, and the path they have taken into research. To discover Your Path in Research, visit the National Institute of Health Research website for information and inspiration.
Today we hear from Zoë Turner, a data scientist in Nottinghamshire Healthcare's Clinical Development Unit. Zoë tells us how she used her technical skills and experience to support researchers, and how she might do things differently in future collaborations.
Who or what inspired you to get involved in research?
I was asked to assist colleagues in the Institute of Mental Health with providing data for a service audit and, although I possibly should have just supplied the data with no further input I actually worked in the project team because they needed access to SPSS which I had and, due to security restrictions, I could not share the data outside of a Trust computer. Consequently, we explored the data, extracted and tested parts together and I controlled the security of the data throughout.
How has working on research projects changed your day to day practice?
It gave me a huge appreciation of the benefits of collaborative working across disciplines. We each brought a different skill set to the service audit project and I felt like a very valued member of the team. I appreciated being able to show how I’d extracted the data and have the opportunity to reiterate the extractions as we learned more about it. The other members of the team brought their clinical and public health skills, along with statistical knowledge and I learned a great deal from them.
Did you face any challenges when you wanted to get involved in research?
Not for the project I worked on as I was invited to be involved in it. I haven’t considered doing any further research or service audits which I would be leading on, as I don’t feel I have specific questions that would benefit from research or a service audit.
How have you involved patients in your research?
The project I worked with did involve community groups but not patients directly. Although we found patterns in the data we didn’t make any conclusions as to why those patterns existed as that would involve much greater involvement with patients and their families.
How would you encourage your colleagues to get involved with research?
From an analyst view I’d recommend being involved for longer than just supplying the data as, invariably, what we first provide will not be enough, or necessarily correct. Analysts have built up skills working with data that can benefit researchers tremendously. For example, one thing I learned early on in the audit was that some statistical programmes, like SPSS, need words coded into number and I could do that at source saving a lot of recoding time.
What's your research ambition?
I like working with research colleagues and value their input greatly. My ambition is to be able to work with them closely on future projects.
How does research make a difference to the NHS? (Or to your service?)
Research is important for the public body of knowledge and is retained for years, even decades. We have a duty to both use and contribute to research and we have a unique position, being in the NHS, to research questions that may not necessarily be evident to those outside our organisations.
To discover what your path in research might be, take a look online or email