Research Assistant, Medicine

Applications are invited for a Temporary post of a Research Assistant within UCD Medicine

This role arises from a grant from the UCD Foundation for the INSPIRE-NRH Project- Innovative, Specific People Initiated Research Evaluations - NRH Healthcare delivery is increasingly based on healthcare teams, with an emphasis on coordination among providers from different disciplines.

Good team functioning is associated with improved patient outcomes, heightened staff satisfaction, and reduced burnout. Studies have shown superior clinical outcomes in patients with a range of disorders treated by units with interdisciplinary teams (IDT) working patterns compared with other settings. Studies have also found that the quality of teamwork in healthcare is related to patient mortality in hospitals and poor team working can be caused by lots of things, with major change events as one factor. There can be no bigger change than a move to a new hospital.

Established in 1961 the NRH has moved to its new building and provides the most up-to-date services for its patients. This presents a once in a lifetime opportunity to investigate team dynamics (roles & responsibilities of participants in working groups), relationships within and between teams (interdisciplinary) and decision-making practices of senior management teams to enhance team effectiveness.

The INSPIRE-NRH embedded research project is advanced through an Action Research grounding using evidence based organisational development interventions and participatory tools to get full patient/service user engagement. It will bring together academic researchers, frontline clinicians, managers and senior figures to explore the development of a learning organisation, exploring factors influencing interdisciplinary working and relationships between team working and impacts on staff and patients during a period of change/transition and best practice implications for new service delivery.

To achieve these objectives, we will use a mixed-methods approach to provide a rich understanding of the experiences of patients and staff in healthcare teams. A key objective of this embedded research is to offer regular feedback to the Hospital management, Board and staff and patients with data, analysis and data-driven recommendations to inform and support their work in shifting to a patient centered interdisciplinary model of care. We will deliver regular feedback on systems issues and challenges experienced by patients and staff. This will help achieve the objective of becoming a learning organisation.

This role is to work with the postdoctoral researcher on phase 2 of the project and to deliver the data generation activities and to develop research proposals and dissemination activities. An important component of this role will be to develop and maintain relationships within the organisation collaborating with clinicians and patients on research activities. The research assistant will work as part of the team conducting this research programme, under the supervision of the postdoctoral researcher and the direction of the Principal Investigator, Prof ine Carroll.

Research Assistant Salary Range: 28,701 - 32,481 per annum (pro rata will apply for part-time role)

Salary offered will be commensurate with qualifications and experience.

Closing date: 17:00hrs (local Irish time) on 16th February 2023

Applications must be submitted by the closing date and time specified. Any applications which are still in progress at the closing time of 17:00hrs (Local Irish Time) on the specified closing date will be cancelled automatically by the system. UCD are unable to accept late applications. UCD do not require assistance from Recruitment Agencies. Any CV's submitted by Recruitment Agencies will be returned.

Prior to application, further information (including application procedure) should be obtained from the Work at UCD website: https://www.ucd.ie/workatucd/jobs/