Advancing Partnered Research in the VA Healthcare System: The Pursuit of Increased Research Engagement, Responsiveness, and Impact

Excerpt

Organization scholars and astute leaders have known for half a century that involving people in decision-making increases their motivation to implement decisions1 and that integrating research and practice in an organization is associated with higher organizational performance.2 Yet this knowledge has not been used very effectively in implementing research evidence into practice, and the pipeline metaphor of translating research into practice inherently ignores these organizational facts. The pipeline portrays the development of knowledge as the domain of researchers, to be translated into usable form for practitioners and organizations. It also portrays a sequential process that leaves the potential users of research out of its development, contrary to what is needed to motivate the use of research findings. Conducting partnered research and evaluation through bidirectional communication and engagement of key stakeholders holds significant promise for improving the impact of research through the design and implementation of evidence-based practice and policy. …