Affra Al Shamsi graduated with distinction from her MSc in Information Management
at Sheffield University, and started her PhD studies at Sheffield’s School of
Health and Related Research (ScHARR) in March 2014. She was award her
Postgraduate Higher Diploma in Medical Librarianship with distinction from
Sultan Qaboos University (Oman), and holds a BSc in Chemistry from UAE
University. Affra is an interdisciplinary scholar both professionally and
academically, and her particular areas of interest include interdisciplinary
research, learning and teaching, knowledge sharing patterns and behaviour,
individual behaviour within teams, EBP (evidence based practice), mixed methods
research, multimodal approaches in research and teaching, systematic reviews,
public engagement, and research for impact.
Affra is passionate about finding innovative and creative ways to bring
research and learning closer to the public. She is working in collaboration
with several public engagement groups, aiming to raise awareness of research
for impact, public involvement and engagement to PGR students. She also has special interest in teamwork and
improving individual team working skills, with an emphasis on healthcare. She
has developed a Masterclass for 4th year medical students designed to help
integrate their theoretical learning with clinical practice on ‘Communication
and Collaboration among Cross Professional Teams’ (MBChB Masterclass Integrated
Learning Activity (ILA)) which she will deliver in August. Affra was the 2009
Yale University International Associate, where she identified approximately
$60,000 in medical library cost savings for 2010.
The title of Affra's PhD project is 'Incorporating a Knowledge Management Paradigm into Healthcare: A Mixed Method Investigation of Knowledge Sharing in Cross-Professional Teams in Healthcare'
Abstract
This investigation maps the intersections
between teamwork and knowledge sharing (KS) within healthcare, aiming to
reconcile practice and evidence.
It employs a pragmatic epistemology along with
mixed methods (MM), as the research focuses on the human factor in tacit KS
(communication, perceived ideas, practices, etc.,) on an individual and group
level within healthcare teams, to deepen our understanding of factors that
increase or lessen healthcare professionals’ tendencies to engage in KS
behaviours.
This inductive-driven investigation is built on
predominantly qualitative research approaches involving a quantitative
component. Qualitative methods are best to identify an ‘unknown’ phenomenon
(tacit KS behaviours within healthcare cross-professional teams) and consider
potentially influencing factors. The research will offer a holistic
understanding through a literature review and document analysis (both
qualitative and quantitative), followed by a mixed method systematic review
(MMSR), interviews and focus groups, to explore participant views and identify
variables associated with KS in healthcare teams. The quantitative component,
primarily the questionnaire, will examine the relationships among the variables
identified during the previous phases, and the statistical data will allow for
replication and generalisation of data. The MMSR framework will be used to
analyse qualitative data, with emerging themes used to enhance, develop or
group questions in the survey. This holistic approach will bring together all
qualitative and quantitative data collected to develop the final instrument of
the survey.
This research methodology is innovative in its
scope and complexity. A review of current literature on MM highlights that
different types of data collected are usually triangulated rather than mixed or
integrated. Importantly, this MM research uses a combined approach throughout
the research methodology. It builds a solid framework to assist in combining
qualitative and quantitative methodologies, and adds rigor through integrating
MM in both data collection and analysis, adding unique and new knowledge in
this field.
