Assessing research capacity in Victoria's south-west health service providers

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the research interest, capacity and culture in individuals, teams and health organisations across south-western Victoria. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey. SETTING: Eight public health services in the south-western region of Victoria. PARTICIPANTS: All staff were invited to participate. INTERVENTION: Hospital staff survey. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: The Research Capacity and Culture tool. RESULTS: The survey was completed by 776 staff including nurses, allied health staff and doctors. Half of the respondents were currently involved in research, while most wanted to be more involved. Respondents reported having moderate research skills and success at individual, team and organisation levels. Women and nurses reported having lower skills than comparable groups. Motivators for undertaking research were skill development (increased job satisfaction and brain stimulation) while the most commonly selected barriers were lack of time, other work taking priority and lack of funding. CONCLUSION: Health organisations in regional and rural Victoria could harness opportunities to enable staff participation in research by supporting identified strengths, addressing barriers and providing "permission" for staff to get involved in research. Efforts to improve research capacity among women and nurses could lead to the greatest overall improvement in organisations' research capacity and output-and translation of evidence into practice.