Dear All
I am new to the group - and new to realist reviews - so the opportunity to read all comments/postings has been invaluable - thanks to all!
I wanted to pose a question to the group regarding stakeholder involvement in undertaking a realist review. There is a group of us who are developing a funding proposal to undertake a review around breastfeeding peer support (as basically evidence is very inconsistent evidence and RCT results at odds with qualitative insights - which we would largely suggest is due to the wide heterogeneity in trials/service delivery, etc. So this approach feels perfect to try and unravel exactly what is happening, why, who delivering, etc.
SO with this in mind - I wanted some advice regarding how and when stakeholders should be involved - obviously there is a number of us on the bidding team - and the plan was to do some targeted consultations with academics, commissioners, health professionals, peer supporters and some service users who have experiential/theoretical knowledge in this area of support. The guidance suggests that they are engaged within the 'concept mining' phase (but early feedback from one of the RDS leads recommended that they are only consulted once the review is completed as otherwise would bias what is identified?!). My thoughts were that it would be useful to have this stakeholder engagement throughout the process (so through concept mining/sharing results of review as well as involvement in the data synthesis process). What are your thoughts on this? Is there a key number we should be aiming for, e.g. 20, 40, 60 stakeholders through the process - or key ones to be engaged at key points?
Any help/advice, etc, would be greatly appreciated!
All the best
Gill
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