New Opportunities for West Midlands Healthcare and Social Work Students to Engage in Research
A collaboration between the NHS, social care and academic institutions across the West Midlands will inspire registered healthcare, social work and public health students to consider a range of research careers.
The National Institute of Health and Social Care Research (NIHR) has pledged £34.9m to encourage the regulated healthcare and social work professions into research roles as part of the new INSIGHT: Inspiring Students into Research scheme. This strategic move will accelerate the numbers of nurses, midwives, pharmacists, social workers and allied health professionals ultimately leading and delivering research and generating evidence to underpin best available care.
The West Midlands NIHR INSIGHT Consortium, led by University of Birmingham, has been awarded £2.5m to provide fully funded research master’s courses to early career healthcare professionals and social workers. Working with local NHS Trusts, the students will be able to take the courses full or part time so they can continue their career pathways providing care across the West Midlands. It is envisaged this initiative will provide the right start for the future research workforce and retain talent in the region.
Less than 0.1%
According to NIHR, the most recent headcount from 2017 showed that less than 0.1% of the nursing, midwifery and allied health professional workforce were involved with research. Yet it is well documented that research led by nurses, midwives, AHPs and other healthcare and social work professionals, and the contributions they can make as members of multidisciplinary research teams, can drive change to policy and patient care. Research is integral to high quality evidence-based care and has also been shown to increase job satisfaction for staff and improve retention, when conducted alongside delivering care.
The consortium sees seven Universities and eight NHS Trusts come together to accelerate the development and growth of our future health and social work researchers. Suitable candidates will be allocated to higher education institutions and programmes according to discipline, personal and professional needs and student choice. The first cohort of places start from September 2024.
Dr Nikolaos Efstathiou, School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Birmingham said:
“We seek to provide a sustainable regional pipeline via which those motivated next generation researchers can acquire the skills and capabilities so they can have fulfilling careers delivering and leading research. With our many NHS, social care and research infrastructure partners we are fully committed to creating a positive place-based research and innovation environment for our talented graduates who aspire to be future clinical academics and research leaders.”
The programme will target those professions that don’t have much exposure to research during their professional training.
Professor Waljit Dhillo, Dean of the NIHR Academy said:
“We know how important early exposure to research is for building capacity within health and social care. The INSIGHT programme will offer over 300 funded research masters places per year and provide engagement activities that have the potential to excite and capture the imagination of students at an early stage in their career.
“I’m delighted that we can invest in our next generation of researchers in the West Midlands, and show students all of the benefits that research roles and careers have to offer.”
West Midlands bid
The West Midlands bid, put together with input from final year nursing students, patient ‘experts by experience’, early career clinical academics and research delivery staff from across our health and social care community, emphasised that research must reach out to all communities if it is to make a difference to the health and wellbeing of those living and working in the West Midlands. Collaborating institutions will seek to ensure that future practitioner researchers represent the communities they serve by ensuring access to funded postgraduate study.
Professor Anne Topping, Professor of Nursing University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust and University of Birmingham said:
“The programme is important for future-proofing our sustainable regional research workforce. Our programmes will produce those professionals, who are able to work collaboratively, generate, translate and implement best available science and evidence into real world interventions, ultimately bringing benefits to care, and the health and wellbeing of our communities.”
Cystic Fibrosis dietitian researching best diet for patients on new therapy
Joanne Barrett is a NIHR Doctoral Fellow at the University of Birmingham, and also works as a specialist Cystic Fibrosis (CF) Dietitian for University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Trust.
After qualifying as a dietitian and working in a general hospital, Joanne became a specialist cystic fibrosis dietitian at the West Midlands Adult Cystic Fibrosis Centre, University Hospitals Birmingham and has gone onto lead a team of four dietitians who care for patients who attend this regional specialist centre.
The dietetic service has expanded and developed to meet the needs of an increasing number of people living with CF with more complex disease reaching adulthood, and now older age with the advancement in treatments.
Joanne explained about how her research interest grew from her clinical work: “My research interests stem from the challenges I have encountered working CF patients and supporting them to manage complex multi-morbidities. Despite my specialised clinical role, I recognised the needed to further develop my research skills to improve the service and clinical care provided to patients.
After completing an MA in Health Research 10 years ago and conducting small research projects in my clinical role, Jo was then successfully awarded a NIHR Pre-Academic Clinical Academic Fellowship and began studying at the University of Birmingham.
Jo continues: “My desire to understand how people living with Cystic Fibrosis on a new therapy called CFTR modulator are best supported to manage their weight was the key driver for me applying for a PhD fellowship. My research aims to co-design a diet and physical activity behaviour change programme with people living with CF on CFTR modulators. I am now co-producing research with people living with CF, learning new skills, collaborating with academics and commercial health providers.”
“The NIHR fellowship scheme and support from the clinical academic careers team at University Hospitals Birmingham and University of Birmingham has provided me with a fantastic opportunity to undertake research training and research outside of the challenges and pressures of a clinical service. Once I have completed my PhD I hope to use my clinical expertise and research skills to continue to develop and implement research that is relevant to patients and improve the quality of care the NHS provides to people with CF.