Organisation: 

Manchester Univeristy NHS Foundation Trust / Manchester Local Care Organisation Community Crisis Response Team

Why were you interested in research and this ARC Internship?

Throughout my nursing career I have always been highly driven and self motivated, keen to develop both professionally and personally. Since gaining my initial diploma I have gone on to successfully complete my BSc in Nursing and MSc in Advanced Practice, with a goal to obtain my PhD.

Following completion of my MSc I worked as an Advanced Clinical Practitioner (ACP) in Emergency Medicine (EM), a field I had worked in for 17 years of my nursing career. With this new perspective on practice I was able to utilise both holistic and clinical acumen to benefit my patients care. From here I identified that many high-risk groups such as those living with frailty, end of life and increased social care needs were being admitted when care could have been provided at home. I therefore moved into a community response team whose ethos is to provide care for patients in their usual residence to avoid hospital admission.

I am committed to nursing and patient centred care, my aim in this new role was to create admission avoidance pathways, to improve patient outcomes and integrate primary and secondary care working. However, I had very limited exposure of both research, and the professional pathways available, to help me succeed.

The ARC-GM internship offered me the chance to acquire the essential research skills needed with the supervisory guidance to bring my ideas to fruition. The core themes were not only aligned with my clinical academic area of interest but also with the trusts vision and values, benefitting the patient cohort.

What has been the impact of the Internship?

I have undertaken and successfully completed a MSc level module in Research Design. Critically evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of current research inclusive of sampling methods, data collection and issues of reliability/validity. Studying both qualitative and quantitative research design and methods whilst critically evaluating their application to study.

I have produced a research proposal describing a piece of research relating to health care using a pre-determined grant application format, which has formed the basis of my pilot study, a rapid response service. The pilot has a member of the crisis response team at the front door of secondary services, primarily covering the Emergency Department to facilitate early discharges. Data is being collated with early analysis proving very positive and the service is now successfuly embedded in practice.

The internship developed my confidence to submit several abstracts for consideration at conferences. I have successfully secured two presenter positions with Health Education England Advanced Practice. One nationally and one  regionall where I will be presenting, my rapid response/admission avoidance work.

With the guidance and supervision of my ARC GM mentors, I was successful in obtaining an NIHR ARC GM Pre-doctorate fellowship. This next step will allow me to further develop my research proposal and PhD application.

What are your plans for after the Internship?

As an aspiring nurse consultant with MFT I intend to progress from a NIHR AR GM pre-doctorate fellowship to a PhD.

I will be utilising my time on the pre-doctorate fellowship to create a substantial portfolio of evidence with a clearly defined research question, based on my current work, to put forward in application.

Organisation: 

Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust

Why were you interested in research and this ARC Internship?

I completed my MSc in 2016 and after several years in a specialist post had completed many service evaluation projects and implemented evidence-based interventions into our practice but I felt I needed more support and knowledge to take the step into developing my own research projects. The clinical field I work in is developing all the time and there are still many unanswered questions. I needed some guidance with how to develop my research skills so I could have an impact on the efficacy of our patient care.

I was keen to learn more about what a clinical academic role could include and see first-hand the benefits that having research active AHPs could have within our clinical team.

The opportunity to have funding and time allocated as part of the internship appealed to me so I could focus specifically on the skills and knowledge I needed to develop.

What has been the impact of the Internship?

• I have completed an MRes module in critical appraisal and evidence synthesis. This has allowed me to prepare a protocol for a systematic review which will help me identify what interventions are already known to be effective in helping people prepare physically for a lung transplant.
• I have had access to experts from the Cochrane Group who have taught and supported me to learn even more about systematic review methodology. I have also completed the Cochrane Group online training modules.
• I have had the time and space to review and develop what research questions are unanswered in my field.
• I have solidified my desire to embed research into my clinical role, to continue to answer questions that are important to patients and their families. I have made links with a PPI group who are reviewing my systematic review protocol.
• I have had experience in data collection for a rapid review project, working alongside the research team to complete risk of bias assessments and check data extraction accuracy. This has provided invaluable experience that I will use when completing my own systematic review.

What are your plans for after the Internship?

I have been successful in being accepted onto the NIHR ARC-GM’s pre-doctoral fellowship programme to continue my research learning journey. As part of this programme I aim to complete some more MRes modules, undertake a systematic review, continue to build links with a PPI group and submit some outputs from my work to an international transplant conference.

Organisation: 

The Christie NHS Foundation Trust

Why were you interested in research and this ARC Internship?

I have had an interest in research for some time and successfully completed my Clin MRes in 2012. I then had a break in career development and academic study whilst raising a family but came back to it in 2019 following an internal CPCR (Christie patient centred research) secondment opportunity, which allowed me to explore the evidence around an area of practice that needs improvement, in greater depth.

This is when I developed an interest in difficult intravenous access (DIVA) as clinical experience and data analysis confirmed it was an area of practice that needed more focus to improve the patient experience.

I wanted to understand more about the evidence base around this topic and how we might translate the evidence into practice, so applied for the ARC internship.

The internship seemed like the ideal opportunity to work with experts in research, be allocated time out of clinical practice to focus on a project and find out if out if a research career was still for me.

What has been the impact of the Internship?

The ARC internship gave me access to experts in evidence synthesis and the opportunity to complete the CAES (critical appraisal and evidence synthesis) and Cochrane modules to develop my own appraisal skills and therefore a good basis to understand and apply the evidence on DIVA in greater depth. I have also been working on a scoping review protocol to explore the evidence base in a more structured way.

I have been able to translate some of the evidence into practice through quality improvement work, introducing ultrasound guided cannulation to practice for our patients with difficult veins.

I have been able to identify some gaps in the current evidence base and have been working on research ideas for a PhD application.

What are your plans for after the Internship?

The internship has reaffirmed I want to pursue the clinical academic career pathway and I have been successful with a pre-doctoral fellowship application to pursue research in this topic area.

Organisation: 

Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust – Manchester Royal Infirmary

Why were you interested in research and this ARC Internship?

Being a clinical research nurse, I was interested in knowing more about the academic part of research. I wanted to equip myself well to be an efficient and resourceful person in research in the unit so that I will be able to contribute effectively to my work area. I always wanted to academically and professionally progress and this internship was a big step to it. I had a wonderful opportunity to work with faculty of Manchester university who were very resourceful and guided me throughout my internship period.

What has been the impact of the Internship?

I was able to share my experience with students, which has motivated some to consider research as their career in future.

Being a research nurse and having a sound research academic background makes me feel confident of what I am doing.

I was able to share my experiences with staff as part of their development course. They found it motivating and some of them have expressed ideas of doing some quality improvement research projects in the unit.

It has made me more confident what research is and helps me to carry out my research delivery more efficiently.

What are your plans for after the Internship?

I will be the Principal investigator for one of our research studies which will be opening soon in our unit.

Encourage and motivate staff in our unit to take up research to enhance patient care delivery. Also guide them about how to take up research projects of their interest

Pursue all that is needed for a doctorate degree.