IN DEPTH
Researching antenatal care in Nepal
Katie Barnard spent a week in Nepal as part of a research team studying antenatal care, gaining insights into the complexities of carrying out research in clinical settings and returning with a deeper interest in health research.
SINCE starting my clinical librarian role back in 2016, I have worked with several clinician-researchers from the Women and Children’s Health Research Unit at North Bristol NHS Trust (NBT) on systematic review projects. For those unfamiliar with them, systematic reviews aim to “identify, evaluate and summarise the fi ndings of all relevant individual studies” on a particular topic, employ- ing strict scientifi c methods to provide reliable evidence for future practice or research.1
The NBT Women and
Children’s Health Research Unit is fast becoming a powerhouse of research, and completely understands the value of having an information professional supporting its projects.
My secondment post
In November last year, my involvement was turned into a formal secondment, meaning I now have a dedicated day each week for this work. Whereas previously I solely devised and ran the systematic review searches, my remit has now increased to include abstract screening, data extraction, and other tasks as they crop up. The funding for this post comes from several pots of research grant money, so at present can only be a short- term fi xed term post, though happily it has just been extended until I go on maternity leave in May.
The Nepal Antenatal Care project As well as UK-based projects, the team
32 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL
is also developing a portfolio of global health research. One of the projects I have been supporting is around antenatal care (ANC) in Nepal, which is in partnership with Mother and Infant Research Activities (MIRA),2
a Nepali research organisation, and funded by a pump priming grant from the University of Bristol.
Nepal has made considerable progress over the last few years in improving its maternal health care, which is refl ected in decreasing maternal and neonatal mortality rates. How- ever, there are still signifi cant socioeconomic disparities in the antenatal care that women receive, with wealthy, educated, urban women much more likely to receive skilled care and to have four or more ANC visits.3
In short, there
is still work to be done to reach the goal of equitable access and quality of care. The aim of the research project, then, is to identify where improvements to ANC can be made and to explore feasible solutions. This
April-May 2019
Katie Barnard (@katiebarnard23
katie.barnard@
nbt.nhs.uk) is Clinical Librarian, Library and Knowledge Service, North Bristol NHS Trust.
Antenatal Research
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