Nurse

I am now much more analytical and evidence-based in my approach to patient care. My research training has helped me to step back and constructively challenge some of the assumptions we make in our clinical practice. I think the biggest eye opener was realising how much of the care we provide is still based on historical ways of working or expert opinion alone. I am developing the skills to help move community evidence-based care forward.

In a nutshell: Some good ideas, hard work, the help of established and inspiring clinical academics, tenaciousness, scientific rigour and a desire to improve patient care.

I had an idea that we were basing anticipatory prescribing practice on a very limited evidence base and I want to understand what was happening. With the help of an excellent and inspiring leading GP clinical academic in palliative care, Dr Stephen Barclay, alongside a very supportive manager and peers, I successfully secured an NIHR ARC Fellowship (at the time it was called a CLAHRC Fellowship).

The Fellowship gives one day a week protected time out of clinical practice to carry out my own research alongside access to bespoke research training. This gave me confidence in my own skills and potential to become a clinical academic. It also helped me to meet like-minded peers who were travelling the same path. Having ongoing advice for clinical academic nurses and mentorship has helped me to develop too.

Being thorough and systematically reviewing the evidence-base as part of my Fellowship was key to opening further funding opportunities. As a result of understanding the gaps in the evidence, devising a robust research proposal and publishing my Masters project in a high impact research journal, I was awarded a NIHR School for Primary Care Research PhD scholarship to take my research and own development further.