Department of Critical Care, University of Melbourne Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences
Project: Mixed Method Evaluation of the Women’s Empowerment and Leadership Initiative
Project Supervisor:
Associate Professor Kara Allen
Tel: +61 3 9342 7000
Email: kara.allen@mh.org.au
Additional Researchers:
Dr Celine Baber MBChB FANZCA DipCU Masters of Bioethics
Email: celine.baber@me.com
Dr Anjalee Brahmbhatt MBChB, PGCertUS, FRCA, FANZCA, AFRACMA
Email: anjalee.brahmbhatt@svha.org.au
Dr Juliana Caicedo Salazar MD. FANZCA
Email: juliana.caicedo@health.nsw.gov.au
Dr Phyllis Phukubye-Johnson
FANZCA, FCA(SA), MMed(Anaesthesiology), DA(SA), MBBCH, BSc(BioMed)(Hons)
Email: drphukubye@me.com
Dr. Fiona Desmond
BMedSci, MB, BCh, BAO (Hons), FCARCSI, DipPainMed, FJFICMI, FANZCA, AdvPTEeXAM, MHA
Email: Fiona.desmond@austin.org.au
Dr. Anurika De Silva
PhD BSc (Hons)
Email: anurika.de@unimelb.edu.au
Introduction
Thank you for your interest in participating in this research project. The following few pages will provide you with further information about the project, so that you can decide if you would like to take part in this research.
Please take the time to read this information carefully. You may ask questions about anything you don’t understand or want to know more about.
Your participation is voluntary. If you don’t wish to take part, you don’t have to. If you begin participating, you can also stop at any time.
What is this research about?
You have been asked to participate in this study because you are a participant in the Women’s Empowerment and Leadership Initiative (WELI). This project aims to investigate the impact WELI has on setting and achieving career goals for women and non-binary anaesthetists. This information will be used to plan future program implementation more efficiently and effectively in an attempt to meet the needs of participants.
This project has been reviewed and approved by the University of Melbourne Ethics Committee (Reference number 2024-27843-59339-3)
Women anaesthetists are under-represented in leadership positions in Australia and New Zealand. Despite institutional change, there is evidence that women are experiencing barriers to career progression. This long standing issue resulted in formation of an initiative in the United States of America (USA), known as the Women’s Empowerment and Leadership Initiative (WELI-US). This initiative has demonstrated benefits to women anaesthesiologists. A chapter of the initiative is commencing in Australia and New Zealand. This protocol describes the evaluation of the local program.
This project involves both survey and interview or focus group components. You may also consent to information that you submit via the WELI website is deidentified and included in the research data.
What will I be asked to do?
Should you agree to participate you will be asked to participate in a survey at four time points, one or more focus group/individual interview, or give permission for feedback to be included in the research. Participation in any of these activities is voluntary. You may undertake the survey and not the focus groups, or vice versa.
For the survey, you will be asked to complete the survey at four points: on joining WELI, after 6 months, 12 months and 36 months after joining WELI. The survey is estimated to take about 20 minutes to complete each time. Participation in the survey at each timepoint is voluntary.
You may also be invited to participate in focus groups (or individual interview if preferred). You can express interest in participating at a WELI session or via the survey. These will be conducted at a location suitable to you (usually at your place of work or online). The sessions will be audio-visually recorded, transcribed and then the transcript will be analysed by the study investigators. It is expected that the time commitment (consent and focus group participation) will up to sixty minutes, excluding travel time. No identifiable data will be included in the transcript.
You may also opt into including feedback from the WELI sessions. This will not require any additional time commitment from you.
Any data you provide will be de-identified and stored securely (see below).
Please take the time to read this information carefully. You may ask questions about anything you don’t understand or want to know more about.
Your participation is voluntary. If you don’t wish to take part, you don’t have to. If you begin participating, you can also stop at any time.
What are the possible benefits?
There are no direct benefits to you from participating in this research. The purpose of the research is to gather information about the impact of interventions of setting and achieving career goals, including factors influencing the success of the process. This will be used to guide curriculum development in the future. The success of WELI in supporting participants to achieve career goals and satisfaction will hopefully be replicated by this branch of WELI. This research is an important component of understanding how we can achieve this.
What are the possible risks?
We do not anticipate participation will impose any significant risk to the participants. Participation in all aspects is voluntary. You may exit the survey or leave the focus group/interview at any time, and you may disclose as much information as you choose through any of the channels. If you experience distress during the focus group/interview we can move on to another question, you can take a break or leave the group. If you experience distress following the interview you are advised to contact your workplace employee assistance program, local doctor’s health program or your GP.
Do I have to take part?
No. Participation is completely voluntary. If you decide to participate and later change your mind, you may be able to withdraw some data from the project. Your survey responses and feedback cannot be identified therefore cannot be removed from the data. If you have taken part in the focus group/interview and then decide to withdraw, your responses can be removed from the compound transcript up to 48 hours after the interview/group. If you wish to withdraw from the project please contact the lead investigator (named above).
Will I hear about the results of this project?
The results of this part of the project will be analysed and reported to the advisory board of WELI in de-identified form. The findings may be presented at anaesthetic conferences and submitted for publication to academic journals. A sample of results from deidentified data may be available on the WELI website.
What will happen to information about me?
Any information that could identify you will remain confidential and accessible only to named researchers on this project. Paper and electronic consent forms will be securely stored on servers at The University of Melbourne. Digital copies of the audio recording and the transcripts will be maintained on a password protected secure network drive at The University of Melbourne. All study data will be retained for a minimum of 5 years from publication of study findings. It is anticipated that the results of this research project will be published in a variety of forums including staff meetings, conferences and research journals. Reports or publications of the results will not contain information that can identify you. Only de-identified data will be used for this purpose. De-identified data will be deposited in data sharing resources (e.g. The Qualitative Data Repository or similar). Other researchers with appropriate ethics approval may be allowed to access this data without further consent in future. You won’t be told specific details about these future research studies. The use of your de-identified data only applies to the research data collected in the study.
Is there any potential conflict of interest?
There are no actual or potential conflicts of interest identified in relation to this project. The investigators work as consultant anaesthetists across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand so there is potential for the participants in focus groups/interviews to be known to the interviewer. Where possible, interviewers who work in other regions will conduct the interviews and de-identify the interview transcripts.
Who is funding this project?
This research is funded through a Health Equity grant from the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists.
Where can I get further information?
If you would like more information about the project, please contact the researchers: Associate Professor Kara Allen by email (kara.allen@mh.org.au) or phone (03) 9342 7000
Who can I contact if I have any concerns about the project?
This project has human research ethics approval from The University of Melbourne [Reference number 2024-27843-59339-3]. If you have any concerns or complaints about the conduct of this research project, which you do not wish to discuss with the research team, you should contact the Research Integrity Administrator, Office of Research Ethics and Integrity, University of Melbourne, VIC 3010. Tel: +61 3 8344 1376 or Email: research-integrity@unimelb.edu.au. All complaints will be treated confidentially. In any correspondence please provide the name of the research team and/or the name or ethics ID number of the research project.
Project ID Number: 2024-27843-59339-3 Plain Language Statement v2.0 October 2024