Health and Care Professionals
Our workforce matters
A skilled clinical research delivery workforce is crucial to making research happen in the NHS and other health and social care settings.
We want to attract, develop and retain the best health and social care professionals to lead and support the delivery of important research. Currently, over 10,000 front-line research delivery staff working throughout the NHS are funded or part-funded by the NIHR.
Clinical research nurses and midwives, allied health professionals, social care professionals, doctors, dentists and clinical research practitioners play an essential role in the delivery of high-quality research care. We support their development and raise awareness of their roles through several campaigns and initiatives.
The Network provides training to support the research workforce and funding to support portfolio growth.
For more information on how we support health and care professional involvement in research, contact our Workforce Development Lead, Nhlanhla Mguni, by emailing nhlanhla.mguni@nihr.ac.uk.
Sharing best practices and delivering improvements
Are you interested in improving the processes of your NIHR Local Clinical Research Network (CRN)? The vision for Continuous Improvement (CI) is that improvement and innovation should be everyone’s business. Improvement and innovation should be embedded in our thinking, leadership behaviours and day-to-day practice as research practitioners. Applying CI principles will enable the CRN to deliver better outcomes and services to all of our stakeholders. It is important to note that CI is about small changes that will have a big impact on improving things for our colleagues and patients. Anyone can become involved in a CI project, and everyone working in research is strongly encouraged to learn more about CI methodologies and tools for improvement.
For further information about Continuous Improvement, please visit the South East Cluster Continuous Improvement Hub platform, where you can find out about exciting innovations that have been taking place across our Network. For more information, please email crnsouthlondon@nihr.ac.uk.
Your path in research
Research happens every day, across the NHS and in many settings, but how much do you know about it and do you know how to engage with it to benefit you and your patients? There are a number of ways for healthcare professionals to get involved in research.