Enhancing voice in healthcare organisations

Staff ideas, suggestions, and concerns can help organisations learn and improve. However, healthcare organisations do not always respond effectively when issues are raised.

The Enhancing voice in healthcare organisations project aims to understand what happens when NHS staff speak up, from raising an idea or concern through to how it is heard, responded to and acted upon. The findings will help identify ways to strengthen learning and improvement across the NHS. This part of the project focuses on how people listen, respond and take action when concerns are raised in healthcare settings.

The study is led by researchers at The Healthcare Improvement Studies (THIS) Institute, University of Cambridge, the Yorkshire and Humber Patient Safety Research Collaboration, and Loughborough University. The study is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). Further information is available on the THIS Institute website: Enhancing voice in healthcare organisations.

We are inviting people who currently work, or have worked within the last 12 months, in an NHS setting, including those in both clinical and non-clinical roles, to take part in an online study. You do not need any prior experience of speaking up or raising concerns to participate.

To take part, you will be asked to complete a short eligibility check and an online consent form. You will then be asked to review a series of eight realistic workplace scenarios and indicate how you would interpret and respond to each situation. After you have completed all eight scenarios, you will also be asked to complete a short matching task in which you match the people you saw in the scenarios to the concerns they were paired with.  

We will also ask a small number of questions about you and your professional background, including your age, sex, ethnicity, professional role and seniority/banding. You will also have the option to tell us which NHS Trust or organisation you work for. This is optional and will be used only to help us monitor recruitment across participating organisations.

You may choose to share your name and contact details if you would like to hear more about the findings of the study and about further opportunities to participate in studies from THIS Institute.

Below, we refer to your responses to the scenarios and your personal characteristics as ‘your data’ and your name and contact details as ‘personal information or contact data’.

The study may take up to 20 minutes to complete.

Taking part is expected to involve minimal risk. Some of the workplace situations may involve concerns or events that you find sensitive or uncomfortable. The study is not an assessment of your performance, and you may skip any questions you do not wish to answer.  

Taking part is voluntary, and you can withdraw at any time without giving a reason. However, once responses have been submitted through Thiscovery, it may not be possible to remove them from the study data. To withdraw, please email: voice@thisinstitute.cam.ac.uk

Personal information used to register for Thiscovery will be stored securely in accordance with Thiscovery's Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy. If you wish to remove your registration details from Thiscovery, you can de-register by emailing: help@thiscovery.org

While there is no direct benefit to you, your participation will help improve understanding of how concerns and ideas are handled in healthcare organisations and may contribute to future improvements across the NHS.

How will we use information about you?

The University of Cambridge is sponsoring this study and is responsible for how your data and personal information is used. Data used for analysis will be pseudonymised or de-identified so that participants are not directly identifiable in reports, publications or presentations. Anonymised research data will be stored securely for up to 10 years and may be shared with other academic researchers for future research.  

If you choose to tell us which NHS Trust or organisation you work for, this information will be used only for recruitment monitoring. Your individual participation and study responses will not be shared with your Trust or organisation, and study results will not be analysed or reported at Trust or organisation level.

International data transfers

Your research data will not be shared with researchers outside the UK. If you separately choose to provide contact details to hear about THIS Institute’s work or future studies, these contact details may be stored in Europe as described below.

You can stop being part of the study at any time, without giving a reason, but we will keep information about you that we already have.

You have the right to ask us to access, remove, change or delete data and personal information we hold about you for the purposes of the study. You can also object to our processing of your data and personal information. We might not always be able to do this if it means we cannot use your data to do the research. If so, we will tell you why we cannot do this. For more information, please see general information about how the University uses personal data.

The findings will be shared with our funder and may be published in academic journals or presented at conferences. No information that could identify you will be included in any reports or publications.

If you would like to hear more about the findings of the study and further opportunities to participate in our research, the team will retain your contact details for this purpose. Your contact details will be kept for as long as the study is ongoing and then deleted. You can also ask us to delete them before that time.

If you would like to hear more about THIS Institute’s work and opportunities to participate in other studies, your contact details will be retained on our secure customer relationship management (CRM) database, HubSpot (your data will be stored in Europe). You can unsubscribe from these communications at any time. You can read more about how your contact data is handled on the HubSpot platform by consulting our Privacy Policy.

This study has been reviewed by the University of Cambridge Psychology Research Ethics Committee: [add reference number].

The study is led by researchers at The Healthcare Improvement Studies (THIS) Institute, University of Cambridge, and the Yorkshire and Humber Patient Safety Research Collaboration, and is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Health and Social Care Delivery Research (HSDR) programme, reference number NIHR167501.

If you would like to discuss this information sheet further or have questions or concerns about anything to do with the study please contact us via voice@thisinstitute.cam.ac.uk.

If you have a complaint about any aspect of the study, please contact the Chief Investigator for the ENVOI programme, Professor Graham Martin – graham.martin@thisinstitute.cam.ac.uk.  

If this does not resolve your complaint, please contact the Director of THIS Institute, Professor Mary Dixon-Woods – mary.dixon-woods@thisinstitute.cam.ac.uk.

If you wish to raise a complaint about how we have handled your information, please contact the university Data Protection Officer at dpo@admin.cam.ac.uk.

If you are not happy with their response or believe they are processing your data in a way that is not right or lawful, you can complain to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) at www.ico.org.uk or telephone 0303 123 1113.

This study is led by a team of researchers at THIS Institute, University of Cambridge, the Yorkshire and Humber Patient Safety Research Collaborative, Loughborough University, Kwantlen Polytechnic University (Canada).

Professor Graham Martin, THIS Institute, University of Cambridge

Professor Niels Peek, THIS Institute, University of Cambridge

Dr Hussein Wahedally, THIS Institute, University of Cambridge

Professor Jane O’Hara, Loughborough University

Dr William Lea, Yorkshire and Humber Patient Research Safety Collaborative

Dr Carla MacLean, Psychology Department, Kwantlen Polytechnic University (Canada)