Exploring the research domain of consultant practice: Perceptions and opinions of consultant radiographers

• Consultant radiographers undertake research but have concerns about their research skills.
• Research aims to improve practice and patients' experiences.
• Relatively few consultant radiographers publish their work routinely.
• Consultant radiographers allocate little protected time for research due to clinical demands.
• Almost half of the consultant radiographers feel research should not be a core part of their roles.

AimThis paper reports on one part of a larger study. The aim was to explore what the core domain of research means to consultant radiographers in clinical practice and to identify the key factors that facilitate or hinder research activity by this staff group.Design and methodGrounded theory research methodology was employed. This first part of the study involved electronic questionnaires being sent to all those known in consultant radiographer posts in the United Kingdom.ResultsResults indicate there are variations across clinical specialties as to the amount and level of research undertaken by consultant radiographers, and not all agreed that research should be a core domain of consultant practice.Main facilitators to research were noted as: time; skills and knowledge of the researcher; a well defined research question.Main barriers to research were noted as: lack of allocated time; lack of skills/experience; clinical workload.ConclusionResearch is one of the four core domains of consultant allied health professional and nursing roles but, as yet, it is not fully embedded into those of all consultant radiographers. Many consultant radiographers appear to spend more of their time on the ‘clinical expert’ element of their role at the expense of the research domain.This study concludes that there is an urgent need for consultant radiographers to understand that research is one of the four core domains and to recognise the need to embed research into their clinical practice.