Research Priorities for Parenting and Child Health: A Delphi Study
For which topic were research priorities identified?
parenting and child health
In which location was the research priority setting conducted?
Australia - Australia
Why was it conducted at all?
Australian centres for parenting focus on children's needs while working in partnership with parents, families and their communities. These agencies incorporate primary healthcare strategies in their unique approach with families. Clinicians' research priorities at these centres have not been explored in an Australian context. no research has been undertaken specifically with clinicians who provide services to parents, children and families as offered by Ngala (one of the eight Australian parenting resource centres) to determine their perceptions of research priorities in this community context. The purpose of our study was to investigate the research priorities of Ngala clinical staff. Ngala Family Resource Centre is a community-based parenting centre that provides services and activities focused primarily on families with children aged up to 6 years.
What was the objective?
to identify research priorities of clinical staff working with families at a Western Australian centre for parenting
What was the outcome?
a ranking list of 26 research questions
How long did the research prioritization take?
March 2005 - November 2005
Which methods were used to identify research priorities?
How were the priorities for research identified exactly?
Step 1: Delphi round 1: survey asking participants to draw up a list of five important questions, problems or approaches relating to care provided at Ngala for children, parents and their families that clinical staff felt should be a basis for future research, 148 research topics submitted. Step 2: data processing: data cleaning, combining similar ideas, resulting in 26 research questions in 7 categories. Step 3: Delphi round 2: participants were asked to rate each topic along 2 questions. Step 4: Delphi round 3: 10 topics identified as important to clients formed the basis of round 3, participants were asked to rank their importance from 1 to 10
Which stakeholders took part?
Ngala family resource centre team: child health nurses, midwives, registered general nurses, mental health and mothercraft nurses, social workers, community workers, early childhood educators, adult educators, specialist project workers, general medical practitioners, paediatric and psychiatric staff, psychologists, dietician. Delphi round 1: 64 participants. Delphi round 2: 64 participants. Delphi round 3: 66 participants.
How were stakeholders recruited?
All clinicians of Ngala Family Resource Centre were eligible and invited to participate in three rounds; 64 staff were in post at the time of rounds 1 and 2 and 66 at the time of round 3.
Were stakeholders actively involved or did they just participate?
Stakeholders were mere participants of the research prioritization process; they were not actively involved in the process.