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Co-producing knowledge about lesbian and bisexual women with breast cancer: Messages for nursing professionals from a knowledge exchange project

Worldwide, cancer is a leading cause of death and reducing cancer inequalities is an urgent health priority. Attention is turning to factors which sustain cancer survival, including quality of care. Moreover, in recent policy initiatives, the vision is for care personalised to individual need representing a cultural shift to recovery, health and well-being. This paper discusses a knowledge exchange project that transferred findings from an empirical study, which revealed distinctive patient experiences among lesbian and bisexual women, to inform the work of two UK national cancer charities. Participatory Action Research methods, involving service users, nursing and other professionals, were key to ensuring outputs were grounded in service user experiences and their involvement lent authority with stakeholders. The project sought to maximise the impact of social science research, embed equality in institutional cultures and practices, influence policy and develop wider knowledge economies about lesbian and bisexual women’s health. Adopting the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research, the paper reflects on what works to promote the sustainability of interventions across five domains for enabling knowledge exchange. It contributes to current debates about ways of achieving impact of research on policymaking and practice and to questions about the co-production of knowledge.