The Volunteers in Research programme: supporting COVID-19 research and improving medical training in parallel.

No Thumbnail Available
Authors
Sears, Jackie
Brookes, Matthew James
Green, Christopher A
Issue Date
2021-05-17
Journal
Type
Evaluation Study
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Prospective Study
Retrospective Study
Keywords
Volunteering
Medical education
Service evaluation
Clinical research
COVID-19
Volunteers in research
Urgent public health research (UPHR)
Medical students
National Institute for Health Research
Clinical Research Network
Volunteers
Journal Title
Clinical Medicine Journal
Volume
21
Issue
3
Begin page
182
End page
188
Abstract
COVID-19 has had an unprecedented impact on society, global healthcare and daily life. The redeployment of research staff to patient-facing roles in the NHS left a depleted workforce to deliver critical urgent public health research (UPHR). We aimed to support UPHR studies and medical student training by developing and implementing a medical student Volunteers in Research programme. We further sought to gain insights about medical students' perceptions of this programme. We collected prospective data and conducted a retrospective survey as part of a service evaluation to assess the value of this clinical research experience to students, as well as motivators and barriers to taking part. The Volunteers in Research programme successfully supported UPHR studies during the COVID-19 pandemic. We generated important insights to help aid the wider implementation of this programme nationally to support essential research and medical student education.
Citation
McKinnon T, Watson A, Richards L, Sears J, Brookes MJ, Green CA. The Volunteers in Research programme: supporting COVID-19 research and improving medical training in parallel. Clin Med (Lond). 2021 May;21(3):182-188. doi: 10.7861/clinmed.2020-1072. PMID: 34001569; PMCID: PMC8140696.
Rights