Stepping out of my comfort zone: How Assistant Psychologist Sahrish Ali got involved in research
Sahrish Ali works as an assistant psychologist in Mersey Care’s Community Forensic Learning Disability Service. In her blog she describes how stepping out of her comfort zone and taking part in a research project has expanded her skills and benefited her work.
My career goals
I’ve always shied away from research. I perceived it as complex and something I wouldn’t be able to get involved in. But the past year has changed that for me. By taking part in a research project, I’ve gained so many skills that have helped my professional development, enhanced my clinical work and ultimately showed me that research is something we can all get involved in.
My career goal is to become a qualified psychologist which involves completing a Clinical Doctorate in Psychology. When I was considering my application for the doctorate, I realised that I had a gap in research experience, and I flagged this in my PACE.
I knew that I needed to step out of my comfort zone and develop skills in research. I started to ask my colleagues how I could learn more, and they suggested that I get in touch with Research Practitioner, Michaela Thomson.
Michaela has been brilliant. She met with me and described a current study that I could get involved in. When I knew I wanted to go ahead with it, I was given protected time to take part and help me with my continuous professional development. I’m so grateful for all the support I’ve received from my team and Mersey Care in general.
Taking part in research
The project aims to learn from service user’s lived experience in forensic learning disability services, to help inform discharge pathways and clinical care models.
As part ofit, I recruited and gained consent from participants, transcribed interviews, recorded data and contributed to a thematic analysis (a research method used to identify, analyse and report patterns/themes within qualitative data).
So much of this was new to me and Michaela supported me throughout the process. I learned to be adaptable and approachable in recruiting people from different settings and speaking to them about very personal topics.
As a team, we put a lot of effort into reviewing the initial questions we approached people with. You want to make sure that the questions will give you the right information but also help the service user feel comfortable.
I focused on being person centred because the research is all about learning from participants and their stories. This is what makes projects like this so meaningful, because it comes from people who have experienced the care we’re trying to improve.
It was a really engaging project that changed how I viewed research. It wasn’t just putting numbers into a database; it was communicating with people. This helped me enjoy the process because I was invested in gaining the participants views rather than just data.
Expanding my skills
I was asked to help present the projects thematic analysis to stakeholders at a Learning Disability, Autism and Neurodiversity Research and Evaluation Stakeholders Day.
As an assistant, presenting to a large group of stakeholders, professionals and research peers, was nerve wracking. It was a daunting experience as the audience was highly skilled and experienced professionals. But I challenged myself to do this and afterwards I received really good feedback, which was an empowering experience.
I also had the opportunity to contribute to a literature review for the project. At times I find expressing myself in writing to be challenging, and it is something I typically avoid. I was a bit apprehensive, but it was a great opportunity for me to develop those skills. As part of the literature review, I read a lot of journal articles, which I used to avoid because I thought it would be overwhelming and beyond my understanding. By engaging with them for the project, it built my confidence and provided me with positive experiences of the research and academia side of my psychology journey. Now I keep up to date with journals to help me adapt my work as an assistant psychologist.
This experience also showed me the importance of networking. Linking in with Michaela, for example, has made a huge difference.
Next steps
The Psychology Clinical Doctorate involves a research module, and after taking part in this research project, I feel so much more comfortable in approaching this. Not only have I developed research skills, but I also have a network of people who I can turn to for advice. I’m really grateful for this experience, the skills it’s given me and the opportunities it’s opened for me.
For anyone thinking about getting involved in research, I say push yourself out of your comfort zone and go for it. Reach out to people for advice and they can help point you in the right direction. There are so many opportunities out there, you just need to make the first step.
Mersey Care has a great supportive network of researchers to learn from so you’re never alone in it. It really benefited me realising that you don’t do research by yourself, you’re a team working together and helping each other.
I think it’s important that people working in clinical settings are more included in research because they are the ones who see service users on a daily basis and know what the current issues are. By involving more people in research, we can really improve the care we deliver.
