Nurses in Clinical Research

The Health Foundation’s response to the UKCRC Consultation on Draft Report of the UKCRC sub committee for Nurses in Clinical Research (Workforce)

The Health Foundation welcomes the opportunity to respond to the UKRC consultation on Nurses in Clinical Research.

The Health Foundation is an independent charitable foundation working to improve the quality of healthcare across the UK. Our endowment enables us to spend at least £20 million annually to develop leaders in healthcare, test new ways of improving the quality of health services through demonstration projects and disseminate evidence for changing health policy and practice.

Between 2002 and 2005 we invested around £4 million in supported nursing and the allied health professions through the provision of research training fellowship. The aim of the schemes was to create a cadre of excellent nursing and allied health professional researchers who would become the academic leaders of the future. These schemes have closed, as our primary focus is now on testing ways to close the gap between known best practice and current practice. This response is based on our experience of providing research fellowships and of supporting people to translate research into practice.

• The Health Foundation recognizes that nursing and Allied Health Professional academic careers should be considered alongside medical academic careers. In the past, we have funded awards to support the creation of nursing and Allied Health Professional research leaders.
• We note the concerns expressed in the Cooksey Report (December 2006) about the slow translation of health related research into patient benefits. We are not clear how the UKCRC report and its proposals will address those concerns. We think that unless the challenges of translating research into patient benefit are addressed alongside building research capacity, it will be difficult to justify the investment of public money.
• Our Clinician Scientists award schemes aim to address the challenge of translating research into practice. They do this through emphasising its importance in recruitment and selection processes, and by providing leadership training to award holders. We would be happy to share further information about the schemes and their impact with the UKCRC.
• We would urge the UKCRC to consider how capacity for nurses to learn quality improvement techniques is to grow, as part of its overall research initiative. Some Health Foundation schemes, such as Engaging With Quality, Safer Patient Initiative and Shared Leadership have shown the benefits of supporting researchers to work with practitioners to translate known best practice and quality improvement into measurable outcomes for patients. Nurses and Allied Health Professionals have had significant roles in these projects. The key skills include: the ability to explain the value of research methodologies and analytical techniques in quality improvement and to access research evidence relevant to particular quality improvement activities.
• Finally, it would be helpful to clarify the expected relationship between Nursing Careers and the Clinical Academic pathway. For example, is it expected that Nurse Consultants and / or Community Matrons will offer leadership to nurses undertaking academic activity? Will it be expected that Nurse Consultants and / or Community Matrons are research literate?

The Health Foundation contact:

Zoe Ward
Public Affairs Adviser
Email: Zoe Ward
Telephone: 020 7257 8000

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