Introduction

In healthcare numerous implementation efforts are made to integrate new knowledge in practice. Some even say that future medical breakthroughs are more dependent on how fortunate these integrating processes are than of the medical research itself. Bridging the Gap is a Vinnvård-financed research project which is contributing with deeper understanding about how healthcare systems can acquire new knowledge in practice. The project intends to do the knowledge production and the application at the same time in a participatory research effort to go beyond knowledge transfer problems. Pedagogical and sociological communicative theories support that application interests are constitutive of the knowledge production process and not just related to subsequent forms of the same. The purpose is to evaluate the participatory research effort of an ongoing subproject of Bridging the Gap which studies learning processes in daily activities that aims for increased value for patients in terms of quality improvement.

Method

Observations were made to collect data of how the personnel discussed findings and interventions from their registered measurements. The participatory actions were planned as three learning seminars.

Results

The first seminar pointed out the research questions more distinctively. At the second seminar the researchers benefitted from having the data validated and the practitioners from reflecting about how they can do immediate changes to improve practice. At the third seminar a contextual interpretation and conceptualization was made of the analysed data. The research process went beyond validating the data to a collaborative knowledge production of the same.

Conclusion

With a participatory research effort the researcher can take advantage of the masseducated professionals in healthcare in the knowledge production. There is a win-win situation by using learning seminars in the research process; the practice make use of the researchers’ observations at the same time as the researchers validate their data. But what is actually happening is not just a mutual consultation but also a constitutive knowledge production process between researchers and practitioners.