Team ReSNetSLT are delighted to feature this blog post from Sarah Hayward @sarahhayward25.
In October 2020, I’d just finished my full-time HEE/NIHR Pre-Doctoral Clinical Academic Fellowship (PCAF), having had a year out of direct clinical practice to focus on my MRes at University College London and my programme of research skills and clinical training.
Suddenly, it was time to step back into a clinical post.
The pandemic hadn’t helped matters – I’d spent the last half of my PCAF holed up indoors writing up my dissertation during a lockdown while my colleagues grappled with the challenges of teletherapy and PPE.
I returned to Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust to pick up a mixed post across two therapy teams with an exciting new clinical academic role one day a week.
If you’re interested to hear about how my research post came about, see the RCSLT webinar “Mapping Research into your Career Journey” HERE.
How was I going to combine my new skills and research activities with a full clinical caseload?
I expected that my research activity would lead to a deeper level of reflection which in turn would benefit my clinical practice, and my clinical practice would help to ‘ground’ the research activity, which is indeed the case.
Research activity takes extensive time and thought, you have to read widely, talk to people and network, turn things over in your mind, reflect, try things and make changes.
Clinical work also requires these things but can feel much more fast-paced with constant demands, appointments, reports, phone calls, meetings.
Time for reflection can feel in short supply.
In a mixed post like mine, it can feel like competing demands crowd out those reflective thoughts.
What surprised me was, I’ve had to learn to work at two paces, switching gear between the two in the middle of the week and focusing my mind on slower thinking.
It can feel like a challenge; there are times when I can’t get my brain to slow down without it darting to the next action required.
Of course, all of us do this to varying extents as part of our SLT role.
Whatever level of research activity you are involved in, here are my Top Tips!
- Be organised! Ring fence your research time and resist the temptation to spend it catching up on admin!
- Spread the word, tell your colleagues about your activities and accept offers of help.
- Staying active within networks of like-minded people is critical for learning and support, which is why ResNetSLT is such a great resource.
Link in with the RCSLT Research Champions, ClinAcSLT CEN and your local CAHPR Hubs. - Give yourself a break!
There is a temptation to try and prove your worth constantly in a post like this, but sometimes things have to be allowed to evolve.
Sometimes it pays to be more like the tortoise than the hare.