Cargando…

The hidden emotional labour behind ensuring the social value of research: Experiences of frontline health policy and systems researchers based in Kenya during COVID-19

Health policy and systems research (HPSR) is a multi-disciplinary, largely applied field of research aimed at understanding and strengthening the performance of health systems, often with an emphasis on power, policy and equity. The value of embedded and participatory HPSR specifically in facilitati...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Nzinga, Jacinta, Oliwa, Jacquie, Oluoch, Dorothy, Jepkosgei, Joyline, Mbuthia, Daniel, Boga, Mwanamvua, Musitia, Peris, Ogola, Muthoni, Muinga, Naomi, Muraya, Kui, Hinga, Alex, Kamuya, Dorcas, Kelley, Maureen, Molyneux, Sassy
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10464993/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37643165
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0002116
_version_ 1785098583249256448
author Nzinga, Jacinta
Oliwa, Jacquie
Oluoch, Dorothy
Jepkosgei, Joyline
Mbuthia, Daniel
Boga, Mwanamvua
Musitia, Peris
Ogola, Muthoni
Muinga, Naomi
Muraya, Kui
Hinga, Alex
Kamuya, Dorcas
Kelley, Maureen
Molyneux, Sassy
author_facet Nzinga, Jacinta
Oliwa, Jacquie
Oluoch, Dorothy
Jepkosgei, Joyline
Mbuthia, Daniel
Boga, Mwanamvua
Musitia, Peris
Ogola, Muthoni
Muinga, Naomi
Muraya, Kui
Hinga, Alex
Kamuya, Dorcas
Kelley, Maureen
Molyneux, Sassy
author_sort Nzinga, Jacinta
collection PubMed
description Health policy and systems research (HPSR) is a multi-disciplinary, largely applied field of research aimed at understanding and strengthening the performance of health systems, often with an emphasis on power, policy and equity. The value of embedded and participatory HPSR specifically in facilitating the collection of rich data that is relevant to addressing real-world challenges is increasingly recognised. However, the potential contributions and challenges of HPSR in the context of shocks and crises are not well documented, with a particular gap in the literature being the experiences and coping strategies of the HPSR researchers who are embedded in health systems in resource constrained settings. In this paper, we draw on two sets of group discussions held among a group of approximately 15 HPSR researchers based in Nairobi, Kenya, who were conducting a range of embedded HPSR studies throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The researchers, including many of the authors, were employed by the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme (KWTRP), which is a long-standing multi-disciplinary partnership between the Kenya Medical Research Institute and the Wellcome Trust with a central goal of contributing to national and international health policy and practice. We share our findings in relation to three inter-related themes: 1) Ensuring the continued social value of our HPSR work in the face of changing priorities; 2) Responding to shifting ethical procedures and processes at institutional and national levels; and 3) Protecting our own and front-line colleagues’ well-being, including clinical colleagues. Our experiences highlight that in navigating research work and responsibilities to colleagues, patients and participants through the pandemic, many embedded HPSR staff faced difficult emotional and ethical challenges, including heightened forms of moral distress, which may have been better prevented and supported. We draw on our findings and the wider literature to discuss considerations for funders and research leads with an eye to strengthening support for embedded HPSR staff, not only in crises such as the on-going COVID-19 pandemic, but also more generally.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-10464993
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2023
publisher Public Library of Science
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-104649932023-08-30 The hidden emotional labour behind ensuring the social value of research: Experiences of frontline health policy and systems researchers based in Kenya during COVID-19 Nzinga, Jacinta Oliwa, Jacquie Oluoch, Dorothy Jepkosgei, Joyline Mbuthia, Daniel Boga, Mwanamvua Musitia, Peris Ogola, Muthoni Muinga, Naomi Muraya, Kui Hinga, Alex Kamuya, Dorcas Kelley, Maureen Molyneux, Sassy PLOS Glob Public Health Research Article Health policy and systems research (HPSR) is a multi-disciplinary, largely applied field of research aimed at understanding and strengthening the performance of health systems, often with an emphasis on power, policy and equity. The value of embedded and participatory HPSR specifically in facilitating the collection of rich data that is relevant to addressing real-world challenges is increasingly recognised. However, the potential contributions and challenges of HPSR in the context of shocks and crises are not well documented, with a particular gap in the literature being the experiences and coping strategies of the HPSR researchers who are embedded in health systems in resource constrained settings. In this paper, we draw on two sets of group discussions held among a group of approximately 15 HPSR researchers based in Nairobi, Kenya, who were conducting a range of embedded HPSR studies throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The researchers, including many of the authors, were employed by the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme (KWTRP), which is a long-standing multi-disciplinary partnership between the Kenya Medical Research Institute and the Wellcome Trust with a central goal of contributing to national and international health policy and practice. We share our findings in relation to three inter-related themes: 1) Ensuring the continued social value of our HPSR work in the face of changing priorities; 2) Responding to shifting ethical procedures and processes at institutional and national levels; and 3) Protecting our own and front-line colleagues’ well-being, including clinical colleagues. Our experiences highlight that in navigating research work and responsibilities to colleagues, patients and participants through the pandemic, many embedded HPSR staff faced difficult emotional and ethical challenges, including heightened forms of moral distress, which may have been better prevented and supported. We draw on our findings and the wider literature to discuss considerations for funders and research leads with an eye to strengthening support for embedded HPSR staff, not only in crises such as the on-going COVID-19 pandemic, but also more generally. Public Library of Science 2023-08-29 /pmc/articles/PMC10464993/ /pubmed/37643165 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0002116 Text en © 2023 Nzinga et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Nzinga, Jacinta
Oliwa, Jacquie
Oluoch, Dorothy
Jepkosgei, Joyline
Mbuthia, Daniel
Boga, Mwanamvua
Musitia, Peris
Ogola, Muthoni
Muinga, Naomi
Muraya, Kui
Hinga, Alex
Kamuya, Dorcas
Kelley, Maureen
Molyneux, Sassy
The hidden emotional labour behind ensuring the social value of research: Experiences of frontline health policy and systems researchers based in Kenya during COVID-19
title The hidden emotional labour behind ensuring the social value of research: Experiences of frontline health policy and systems researchers based in Kenya during COVID-19
title_full The hidden emotional labour behind ensuring the social value of research: Experiences of frontline health policy and systems researchers based in Kenya during COVID-19
title_fullStr The hidden emotional labour behind ensuring the social value of research: Experiences of frontline health policy and systems researchers based in Kenya during COVID-19
title_full_unstemmed The hidden emotional labour behind ensuring the social value of research: Experiences of frontline health policy and systems researchers based in Kenya during COVID-19
title_short The hidden emotional labour behind ensuring the social value of research: Experiences of frontline health policy and systems researchers based in Kenya during COVID-19
title_sort hidden emotional labour behind ensuring the social value of research: experiences of frontline health policy and systems researchers based in kenya during covid-19
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10464993/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37643165
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0002116
work_keys_str_mv AT nzingajacinta thehiddenemotionallabourbehindensuringthesocialvalueofresearchexperiencesoffrontlinehealthpolicyandsystemsresearchersbasedinkenyaduringcovid19
AT oliwajacquie thehiddenemotionallabourbehindensuringthesocialvalueofresearchexperiencesoffrontlinehealthpolicyandsystemsresearchersbasedinkenyaduringcovid19
AT oluochdorothy thehiddenemotionallabourbehindensuringthesocialvalueofresearchexperiencesoffrontlinehealthpolicyandsystemsresearchersbasedinkenyaduringcovid19
AT jepkosgeijoyline thehiddenemotionallabourbehindensuringthesocialvalueofresearchexperiencesoffrontlinehealthpolicyandsystemsresearchersbasedinkenyaduringcovid19
AT mbuthiadaniel thehiddenemotionallabourbehindensuringthesocialvalueofresearchexperiencesoffrontlinehealthpolicyandsystemsresearchersbasedinkenyaduringcovid19
AT bogamwanamvua thehiddenemotionallabourbehindensuringthesocialvalueofresearchexperiencesoffrontlinehealthpolicyandsystemsresearchersbasedinkenyaduringcovid19
AT musitiaperis thehiddenemotionallabourbehindensuringthesocialvalueofresearchexperiencesoffrontlinehealthpolicyandsystemsresearchersbasedinkenyaduringcovid19
AT ogolamuthoni thehiddenemotionallabourbehindensuringthesocialvalueofresearchexperiencesoffrontlinehealthpolicyandsystemsresearchersbasedinkenyaduringcovid19
AT muinganaomi thehiddenemotionallabourbehindensuringthesocialvalueofresearchexperiencesoffrontlinehealthpolicyandsystemsresearchersbasedinkenyaduringcovid19
AT murayakui thehiddenemotionallabourbehindensuringthesocialvalueofresearchexperiencesoffrontlinehealthpolicyandsystemsresearchersbasedinkenyaduringcovid19
AT hingaalex thehiddenemotionallabourbehindensuringthesocialvalueofresearchexperiencesoffrontlinehealthpolicyandsystemsresearchersbasedinkenyaduringcovid19
AT kamuyadorcas thehiddenemotionallabourbehindensuringthesocialvalueofresearchexperiencesoffrontlinehealthpolicyandsystemsresearchersbasedinkenyaduringcovid19
AT kelleymaureen thehiddenemotionallabourbehindensuringthesocialvalueofresearchexperiencesoffrontlinehealthpolicyandsystemsresearchersbasedinkenyaduringcovid19
AT molyneuxsassy thehiddenemotionallabourbehindensuringthesocialvalueofresearchexperiencesoffrontlinehealthpolicyandsystemsresearchersbasedinkenyaduringcovid19
AT nzingajacinta hiddenemotionallabourbehindensuringthesocialvalueofresearchexperiencesoffrontlinehealthpolicyandsystemsresearchersbasedinkenyaduringcovid19
AT oliwajacquie hiddenemotionallabourbehindensuringthesocialvalueofresearchexperiencesoffrontlinehealthpolicyandsystemsresearchersbasedinkenyaduringcovid19
AT oluochdorothy hiddenemotionallabourbehindensuringthesocialvalueofresearchexperiencesoffrontlinehealthpolicyandsystemsresearchersbasedinkenyaduringcovid19
AT jepkosgeijoyline hiddenemotionallabourbehindensuringthesocialvalueofresearchexperiencesoffrontlinehealthpolicyandsystemsresearchersbasedinkenyaduringcovid19
AT mbuthiadaniel hiddenemotionallabourbehindensuringthesocialvalueofresearchexperiencesoffrontlinehealthpolicyandsystemsresearchersbasedinkenyaduringcovid19
AT bogamwanamvua hiddenemotionallabourbehindensuringthesocialvalueofresearchexperiencesoffrontlinehealthpolicyandsystemsresearchersbasedinkenyaduringcovid19
AT musitiaperis hiddenemotionallabourbehindensuringthesocialvalueofresearchexperiencesoffrontlinehealthpolicyandsystemsresearchersbasedinkenyaduringcovid19
AT ogolamuthoni hiddenemotionallabourbehindensuringthesocialvalueofresearchexperiencesoffrontlinehealthpolicyandsystemsresearchersbasedinkenyaduringcovid19
AT muinganaomi hiddenemotionallabourbehindensuringthesocialvalueofresearchexperiencesoffrontlinehealthpolicyandsystemsresearchersbasedinkenyaduringcovid19
AT murayakui hiddenemotionallabourbehindensuringthesocialvalueofresearchexperiencesoffrontlinehealthpolicyandsystemsresearchersbasedinkenyaduringcovid19
AT hingaalex hiddenemotionallabourbehindensuringthesocialvalueofresearchexperiencesoffrontlinehealthpolicyandsystemsresearchersbasedinkenyaduringcovid19
AT kamuyadorcas hiddenemotionallabourbehindensuringthesocialvalueofresearchexperiencesoffrontlinehealthpolicyandsystemsresearchersbasedinkenyaduringcovid19
AT kelleymaureen hiddenemotionallabourbehindensuringthesocialvalueofresearchexperiencesoffrontlinehealthpolicyandsystemsresearchersbasedinkenyaduringcovid19
AT molyneuxsassy hiddenemotionallabourbehindensuringthesocialvalueofresearchexperiencesoffrontlinehealthpolicyandsystemsresearchersbasedinkenyaduringcovid19