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Processes and Responsibilities for Knowledge Transfer and Mobilisation in Health Services Organisations in Wales

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Book cover Managing Improvement in Healthcare

Part of the book series: Organizational Behaviour in Health Care ((OBHC))

Abstract

Transferring and mobilising knowledge from research into healthcare delivery is an enduring international challenge. Our aim was to explore how knowledge sources were used to advance healthcare practice. We analysed data from 28 interviews with senior representatives from Health Boards and an Academic Health Science Partnership in Wales. Although all recognised the need to keep up to date with research evidence, knowledge mobilisation activities were largely individually-driven, rather than embedded within organisations. Lack of time, limited management support, and coordination-failure between different professions (within/outside the organisation) hindered knowledge mobilisation. Enablers included a supportive infrastructure, good leadership and management at all levels. Alongside embedding knowledge mobilisation as an intrinsic part of everyone’s role, enhancing the knowledge broker role of identified individuals was recommended to provide visibility and structure.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the support of Aneurin Bevan and Cwm Taf University Health Boards for funding this scoping review. We thank all the study participants who gave generously of their time. We are especially grateful to the input of our project reference group: Sue Bale, John Geen, Maureen Fallon, Rosamund Howell, Sue Figueirido and to Susan Denman for her critical feedback on earlier versions.

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Correspondence to Emma Barnes .

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Barnes, E., Bullock, A., Warren, W. (2018). Processes and Responsibilities for Knowledge Transfer and Mobilisation in Health Services Organisations in Wales. In: McDermott, A., Kitchener, M., Exworthy, M. (eds) Managing Improvement in Healthcare. Organizational Behaviour in Health Care. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62235-4_11

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