We would like to invite you to take part in a research study that is being carried out by Hollie
O’Sullivan, Master’s Student, under the supervision of Dr Liz Farsaci from the Centre of Health
Policy and Management at Trinity College Dublin.

The purpose of this study is to explore the experiences, perspectives and decision-making
processes surrounding retention among allied healthcare professionals within the
healthcare workforce in Ireland. Should you choose to participate, you will be asked to take
part in a virtual focus group, along with three to four other participants from the same
profession, which will be facilitated by the principal investigator. This virtual focus group will
be will be audio recorded and is expected to take around 60 minutes to complete.

• For the purpose of this research, we have focused on the allied healthcare/health and
  social care professions from the ‘therapeutic’ domain, who are commonly found in
  both the acute and community setting. These include Dietitians, Physiotherapists,
  Occupational Therapists and Speech and Language Therapists.
• You are being invited to participate in this study because you are a registered
  healthcare professional from these professions and working in the healthcare
  workforce in Ireland.
• We aim to recruit a total of 12-20 participantsfor the study, with 3-5 participants from
  each of the four professions and a sample that will represent a variety of roles and
  grades from each of the four professions.

We are conducing this research to gain insight and understanding of the experiences, views,
and decision-making processes among allied healthcare/health and social care professionals
in Ireland, in support of their retention within the workforce. Retention of the nursing and
medical workforce is well researched, but less is known about factors, circumstances and
events surrounding retention of the allied healthcare professional workforce. A key objective
of this research is to generate evidenced based insights that can inform policymakers on
retention strategies for the allied healthcare workforce and social care professions.