This post has been contributed by Lucy Roebuck Saez and Hannah Treloar exploring the experiences, benefits and challenges of participating in a multi-centre research trial alongside their clinical practice as acute speech and language therapists at The Walton Centre, Liverpool.
The PD COMM Trial is a multi-centre randomised controlled trial to compare the clinical and cost effectiveness of Lee Silverman Voice Treatment Versus Standard NHS Speech and Language Therapy Versus Control in Parkinson’s Disease. The trial is currently open to recruitment and is set across 40 elderly care and or neurology units across the UK.
My colleague Hannah and I work jointly on the PD COMM Trial by consenting, randomising and providing Speech and Language Therapy intervention to patients. To date we have been involved in the PD COMM Trial for around 18 months. Combining working in the research trial, collecting data and our SLT intervention has provided an opportunity to develop skills which would provide a good foundation for furthering a future career in research.
Our role at the Walton Centre involves working on the acute Neurological and Neurosurgical wards for the assessment and management of patients with communication and swallowing difficulties. We work with a range of conditions from progressive neurological conditions to Neuro-oncology, Neurovascular and trauma. As you can imagine, this means that our day to day role on the acute wards is extremely varied.
Carrying out the consenting, recruitment and randomisation for the trial at this site has allowed us to develop experience within research, learning about the required protocols and procedures for consent, how to randomise patients and how to thoroughly complete all trial paperwork. When we first started working on the trial, it felt like falling down a rabbit hole of a “new world” of procedures, paperwork and the all-important Trial file updates. Working together in a pair has helped us take on the challenges of the trial, but this role definitely keeps us busy day to day!
When discussing our current role with other Speech and Language Therapists, we sometimes feel that “I am not a researcher” and can feel like an imposter when using this term. We realise this is a common feeling shared and the wealth of experience we have developed through being involved in the trial has built our confidence for being involved in other trials or projects and has also set us in good stead for completing further research in the future. The trial has also provided study days for clinicians working in the trial with recent evidence in the field of Parkinson’s disease and workshop opportunities to develop the clinician’s own research ideas or practice.
It has been challenging combining research and our day to day role. However, we have had support from our manager and the trial unit has always been on hand for any queries we have. It has been really interesting to take on a role which may have traditionally been undertaken by a research nurse which provided a different perspective of experience within the trial. Reflecting on all of the experiences through being involved in the trial, we would strongly recommend the experience to any SLT thinking of being involved in any research trial.
From being involved in research, Twitter has been a great way to connect with other professionals to network and receive peer support. Any SLTs who are interested in research as part of their role or as a career may wish to join the Clinical Academics in SLT CEN on Twitter. There is currently a study day being organised for Spring 2020, any interested SLTs will find the details on Twitter once finalised!