Innovation in increasing the research capacity in community and public health nursing

1

• Innovation in increasing the research capacity
  in community and public health nursing
• Dr Colin Macduff Judy Sinclair
• QNIS Annual Conference
• 5th March 2008

2
Overview of the presentation

• The history of now
• The need for community nursing research
• The Lisbeth Hockey Community Nursing Research
  Fellowship
• Experiences of the nursing research world
• Developing capacity and workplace culture

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The history of now

• How do we make sense of what is going on just now
  in Scottish community nursing?
• What is going on just now?
• Why is it happening in the particular way that it
  is?
• Why is it happening at all?
• See freely accessible e-thesis! (address in
  packs)
• Seeking understanding and meaning in our
  professional personal world(s)

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History

• its just one ....... thing after another!
• The History Boys Alan Bennet 2004

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The need for community nursing research

• One area of broad agreement within RONC
• Limited evidence base for specific interventions
• Limited evidence for the overall effectiveness of
  different roles and service delivery approaches
• Reliable aggregated evidence about quality of
  care is scarce
• Recent difficulty nationally in describing the
  basic characteristics of the workforce in a
  standardised way
• Research can foster understanding and meaning

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A neglected area, despite the work of pioneers

• The survey convinced my Paymasters at the
  Queens Institute that there was such a thing as
  research and that actually before you did
  anything, you should find out more about what you
  were doing
• Dr Lisbeth Hockey in the early 1960s
• Small core of community and public health nursing
  researchers gradually expanding from 1970s onwards

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The Lisbeth Hockey Community Nursing Research
Fellowship

• Aims to promote the capacity for community
  nursing research in Scotland
• Opportunity for a part time research fellow to
  carry out a community nursing research study
  working with an experienced team
• 2005    Dr Alison Bryans GCU The older person's
  perspective on decision making in the context of
  the Single Shared Assessment undertaken by the
  district nursing team

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2006 Award

• An analysis of community nurses' support for self
  care with patients who have long term conditions.
  
• To provide initial clarification of the nature
  and extent of community nurses support for self
  care with patients who have long term conditions,
  and to identify the factors that are most
  important in influencing this support

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Why?

• Supporting self care is a central concern of
• Delivering for Health
• Formative literature review clearly demonstrates
  a lack of explicit focus on self care
• Therefore, addresses a genuine area of knowledge
  deficit and would produce useful knowledge of
  practice for practice

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How?

• Case study research
• 3 cases selected on basis of theoretical
  framework (i.e. explicitness of the focus on self
  care in the nursing model in use)
• Orem R,L,T FHN adaptations
• Covers 6 long term conditions
• Analysis of community nursing documentation
• Interviews with DNs/FHNs
• Interviews with a small number of patients

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Experiences of nursing research secondment

• Time to read!
• Work with an experienced and supportive research
  team
• Gain deeper knowledge and understanding of
  research and processes
• Develop research knowledge and skills and how
  they fit within the clinical environment
• Networking

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Personal challenges..

• Continuity of both research and clinical role
• Geographical isolation
• Part-time working and work-life balance
• Creating enthusiasm and support for research in
  the workplace
• Project management

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Outputs

• Attended RCN International Nursing Research
  Conference 2007 Dundee
• Presenting a paper and a poster at RCN
  International Nursing Research Conference 2008
  Liverpool
• Paper accepted for journal publication

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Developing capacity and workplace culture

• Generating data about what is going on now
• Study of all levels needed policy formulation
  middle management education clinicians
  patients and carers
• SG research very important, but also need for
  research whose questions are formulated by others
  i.e. not just what and how, but also why?

15
Macro capacity doing research

• Lisbeth Hockey Award 2008
• Foster university and service partnership
  research work
• Consortia yet to make significant impact on this
  field
• Other external funding sources e.g. voluntary
  sector

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Micro capacity engaging in and with research

• Research awareness within workplace culture
  implications for patient care and implications
  for own professional future
• Micro-political engagement in terms of
  influencing the development and application of
  research-based tools
• Research must be integral to educational
  programmes, including transitional arrangements