Staff from all rural Local Health Districts in NSW, along with rurally based staff from Ambulance NSW, Justice Health and Forensic Mental Health and NSW Health Pillars are eligible to apply to the program. Individuals are awarded a place in the program based on their readiness to undertake a research project, the relevance of the research to advancing rural health and support from their health service.

As part of the formal curriculum, candidates learn about key aspects of the research and evaluation process. Key learning areas include:

• Understanding the context of research
• Designing research
• Conducting research
• Communicating research

Candidates use their own projects as the basis of an experiential learning approach, with further depth on aspects of quantitative, qualitative and mixed-methods research explored in formal workshop-based teaching.

Funding is also provided to Local Health Districts to support candidates.

Two Senior Program Managers for Rural Research Education (One FTE position) are employed to coordinate the overall program, facilitate capacity building strategies and provide technical advice to candidates. The Managers have a key role in ongoing teaching, delivering weekly webconferences and teleconferences to ensure learning is topical, timely and relevant.

In addition to supervision from Rural Research Education Managers, candidates build a support team around the project which includes an academic mentor, a project sponsor within their organisation and a translation expert who can assist with translating the findings of the study into policy or practice.

The Rural Research Capacity Building Program is intended for staff who work within the NSW rural public health care sector and are involved in the development of policy, design, delivery, evaluation or administration of health care services or population health. This includes community health care workers, allied health staff, nurses, doctors, educators, managers, public health officers and staff involved in providing support services.

Permanent employees of the Northern NSW, Mid North Coast, Far West, Western, Hunter New England (Maitland and north/west), Murrumbidgee, Southern NSW Local Health Districts, Illawarra Shoalhaven LHD (Nowra and south/west) are invited to submit research proposals for consideration.

Rurally-based staff working for NSW Ambulance, Justice Health and Forensic Mental Health Network and NSW Health Pillars are also eligible.

Temporary employees may be considered if enduring employment for the duration of the program can be demonstrated.

Existing researchers or individuals already undertaking or having previously undertaken doctoral level studies or masters by research are not eligible to apply.

If you are unsure of your eligibility, please contact David Schmidt or Kerith Duncanson to discuss this prior to submitting your application.

There are many organisations and individuals working together to support the Rural Research Capacity Building Program by providing tutoring, mentoring, training or advocacy.

These include, but are not limited to:

• Engagement and executive and managerial level throughout rural LHDs, Ambulance NSW, Justice Health and Forensic Mental Health
• NSW Health Pillars
• The Office of Health and Medical Research
• Australian Rural Health Research Collaboration
• The University of Sydney School of Rural Health and Sydney Medical School

The program also draws on teaching expertise from a range of educational institutions across the state, with a range of rurally-based academics from the University of Sydney providing expert teaching across the workshop components of the program.

Information for all intakes is routinely collected on aspects of the program such as financial investment, attendance at face-to-face workshops or teleconferences and progress to timelines for candidates, graduation rates and post-program research implementation.

Self-assessed competence on selected research skills is captured using the 'Research Spider'. This is collected in terms of inputs, outputs and outcomes and is based on a program logic model. Information is added to this continually to keep it up to date.

Download RRCBP Portfolio Assessment Form.

Publications related to the evaluation of the Rural Research Capacity Building Program include:

Schmidt, D., Robinson, K., Webster, E., 2014. Factors influencing attrition from a researcher training program. International Journal for Researcher Development, 5(1) 56-67.

Duncanson, K., Webster, E.L. and Schmidt, D.D., 2018. Impact of a remotely delivered, writing for publication program on publication outcomes of novice researchers. Rural & Remote Health, 18(2).

Schmidt, DD, Webster, E, Duncanson, K. Building research experience: Impact of a novice researcher development program for rural health workers. Aust. J. Rural Health. 2019; 27: 392‐ 397. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajr.12520

If you are interested in applying, please contact:

David Schmidt

Senior Program Manager - Rural Research Education

David.Schmidt@health.nsw.gov.au

02 6492 9104

Kerith Duncanson

Senior Program Manager - Rural Research Education

Kerith.Duncanson@health.nsw.gov.au

0428 848 264

For more information on RRCBP, download the following FAQs for program applicants and managers.

FAQs for Applicants

FAQs for Managers