Welcome to the HEALER Research Toolkit

This toolkit is intended to help librarians in the health sector to carry out research from small-scale, local service evaluation through to much more formal research.   The toolkit is intended as a starting point for those wishing to undertake a research project, highlighting issues to consider and signposting resources to help you get started.

The Toolkit
 
The toolkit leads you in ten manageable steps through the research process.  The ten steps are:

1. Turn Your Ideas Into a Research Question
2. Review the Literature
3. Design the Study and Develop Your Methods
4. Writing Your Proposal for Formal Research
5. Issues About Funding
6. Obtain Ethical and Trust Approval
7. Collect and Collate the Data
8. Analyse the Data and Interpret Findings
9. Implications of Your Research for Practice and Identify How Findings Can Be Put Into Practice
10. Report on the Study and Disseminate Findings
 
 
Acknowledgements
 
The toolkit is based on the Research Flow Diagram and related text produced by the NHS National Institute for Health Research.  The original can be seen at: http://www.rdinfo.org.uk/flowchart/Flowchart.html   We are grateful for permission to use this material as the basis of the HEALER toolkit.
 
The HEALER research toolkit has been developed by a number of HEALER members, in particular:
 
Andrew Booth
Caroline De Brun
Catherine Ebenezer
Maria J Grant (Editor)
Lesley Parker
Hannah Spring
David Stewart
Christine Urquhart
 

Our grateful thanks also go the following people who contributed to the initial discussions and brainstorming of the HEALER research toolkit including:

Alison Brettle
Clare Edwards
Linda Ferguson
Richard Marriott
Audrey Marshall
Barbara Sen
Caroline Store

 
 
David Stewart
HEALER Chair
May 2010