Clinical quality registries : an approach to support research capacity building in clinical academic partnerships

Clinical academic partnerships and collaborations have been implemented in a variety of formats for several decades. It is well established that the combination of onsite research and education in the clinical practice setting contributes to improved patient outcomes. The academic-health precinct model is increasingly popular, whereby the university and hospital are co-located on the same campus to promote innovation, learning and research that is embedded in clinical setting. The premise underpinning these collaborations is frequently one of research capacity building where programs are developed in partnership with nursing academics to support clinicians to create new knowledge, implement and translate research evidence to inform the provision of evidence-based care (Fry & Dombkins, 2017). Measures of success are variously reported in the form of University-centric metrics including higher research degree enrolments and completions, volume and quality of peer-reviewed publications produced, conference presentations or research funding successes or measures of research impact (Duke, 2009). In contrast, the effect on the clinical context may not be well understood and often challenging to measure and report.