Enhancing rural health service research culture and capacity: a qualitative exploration of student research placements

INTRODUCTION: Student research placements may contribute to enhancing health service research capacity and culture. However, little is known about their implementation in rural settings. The aim of this study was to explore the motivations, barriers, facilitators, benefits, and burdens of hosting student researchers in rural health services to inform a tailored, context-specific implementation tool. METHODS: The study adopted a qualitative exploratory design using semi-structured interviews with staff members from rural health services across Victoria, Australia. A thematic analysis approach was applied to the data. The implementation tool was developed using findings from the interviews and the Quality Implementation Framework and the Getting to Outcomes Framework. RESULTS: Nine individuals from seven health services across Victoria participated in the interviews. Participants reported that motivations for hosting student researchers included strengthening university partnerships, enhancing research capacity, and supporting workforce recruitment. Key facilitators included strong university relationships, existing research infrastructure, flexible supervision models, and alignment with health service priorities. Barriers included limited time and staff capacity, conflicting expectations surrounding the placements, and lack of experience with rural health service research. While placements provided benefits such as increased research activity and strengthened partnerships with universities, they also created burdens related to supervision workload and accountability (eg data security, student outputs). The implementation tool derived from these findings consists of 11 steps to facilitate planning, implementing, and evaluating research placements in rural health services. CONCLUSION: This study describes the experiences of student research placements in rural health services, including challenges and benefits. Despite several barriers to implementation, student placements show promise in fostering local research capacity and culture. The tailored implementation tool developed in this study offers a resource for rural health services, with future research needed to test its utility.