Clinician communication and engagement research

The Coronavirus pandemic highlighted the difficulty for Queensland’s health system to effectively engage with frontline clinicians or raise awareness of system-level directives or changes which critically affect your work.

It is understood there has never been a formalised study into the communication consumption behaviours of clinicians within the Queensland context, meaning that current communication and engagement strategies are relying on anecdotal evidence and past experience.

To address this evidence gap, Clinical Excellence Queensland and the Reform Office partnered with QUT’s Centre for Behavioural Economics, Society and Technology (BEST Centre) through CEQ’s Bridge Labs Program to better understand how clinicians engage with information.

Research findings

This project resulted in several key findings as outlined in the Participant Summary – Qualitative (PDF, 524KB) and Participant Summary – Quantitative research (PDF, 1.3MB) reports. These include preferences around the time of day clinicians prefer to receive information, barriers and motivators to engaging with communications, and the different types of "personas" we see in the workforce and how their communication preferences and needs differ.

Next steps

The recommendations are currently under review by the Department of Health.

Members of the research team will host an online webinar to discuss the project and their findings. To express your interest in attending, email Katie.May@health.qld.gov.au.

More information

For more information on the project visit the QUT website or email Clinical-Comms@health.qld.gov.au.

Last updated: 23 August 2023