title: Development of a skill mix and study planning tool for research teams.
abstract: There are various tools available in acute and primary care settings to support decision making about safe-staffing levels. Calculating safe staffing levels is about more than just the number of people on duty. It must reflect skill mix and tasks, and this is more complex outside traditional nursing roles. It is essential that research nurses, who work in multidisciplinary teams collecting the evidence that underpins safe and effective healthcare, are equipped to practise safely, but staffing level tools do not take their unique roles into account. This article describes University Hospitals Bristol Research Work Plan Tool (BRIS-TOOL), developed to enable research managers to identify skill mix in their teams and support effective study planning. It also discusses how the tool accurately reflects research teams' productivity. Finally, the article suggests that the tool can be used to profile research posts, illustrate the breadth of work undertaken in these posts, inform study design and help clinical colleagues to understand research roles better.
authors.affiliation: Research and Innovation Department, Education and Research Centre, University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust.
authors.forename: Paula
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tacchi
mesh_terms: D004506:Education, Nursing / Q000379:methods; D024802:Nurse's Role; D015402:Nursing Education Research / Q000379:methods; D017132:Workplace
keywords: nursing management; research; skill mix; workforce planning tool