70@70 Senior Nurse Research Leaders: Looking back on one year of COVID-19
Thursday 11 March 2021 marks one year since the World Health Organisation declared a global pandemic in response to COVID-19. For this occasion we asked some of the NIHR 70@70 Senior Nurse Research Leaders from the North East and North Cumbria to reflect on their experience of the pandemic one year on.
Carly Brown, Lead Clinical Research Nurse, South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We have seen the research delivery landscape change significantly over this past year. We have responded to an increased demand in urgent public health COVID research and some of us have been re-deployed, which meant that the majority of the team moved out of our usual research specialities.
“The research delivery nurses, trials officers, pharmacy, labs, data support, admin, governance and management have shown great commitment and flexibility in delivering the best possible research service to our patients. Although delivery teams have been extremely stretched, they have shown great resolve and have recruited a significant number of patients to Urgent Public Health (UPH) COVID trials. We have also worked closely with front line teams to ensure that treatments are delivered safely in spite of the increased workload. Our front line teams have been amazing in supporting the delivery of trials, especially during this past year.
“A standard day for the delivery team involved screening for UPH COVID trial recruits every morning, before visiting COVID wards to discuss the trials with patients and ward teams. This increased the team’s presence and has been really positive in raising the clinical research profile and helping us develop important relationships with multidisciplinary services.
“Over the next few months I am hoping to get back into a position where we have all of our non-COVID trials up and running again. I am also keen to progress the nursing and midwifery research agenda. In addition to supporting staff in their own research, I would like to expand our research portfolio in attracting and supporting more nursing and midwifery research studies in the future. Overall, I am very proud of the delivery team’s compassion and response in supporting patient care and research throughout this period.”
Valentina Short, Consultant Nurse and Visiting Senior Research Fellow University of York, Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust, said: “The most obvious thing that changed for me during the pandemic is that I have worked from home throughout and, like others, I have learned the benefits and drawbacks of virtual meetings. I do feel that I have been less visible around my organisation and I have had to be particularly sensitive when promoting research involvement across the organisation, due to increased clinical demands on teams due to COVID.
“However, it has also given me an opportunity to focus more on preparing the infrastructure for future increased research activity and involvement for all nurses. For example, I worked with the Chief Operating Officer and the Organisational Development team to have prompting questions put into appraisal guidance documentation for all members of staff to raise the idea and potential for research involvement and activity. Another example has been to introduce a job planning structure for nurse and associate nurse consultants that clearly defines time for research in keeping with the four pillars for advanced nursing practice.
“I also think that my working has been strengthened due to the pandemic as it has brought people together more. For example, all the other 70@70 mental health nurses in England are now frequently in touch with each other about promoting nurse activity in research at a national level. This has raised some really good initiatives, such as joint symposium presentations, research studies (such as our CARE COVID study) and just general support for one another.
“My hopes for clinical research in the next year is that we (the research community) continue to work together and that the community grows as more nurses become involved in research. I also hope that the Tees, Esk & Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust is able to offer more funded PhD places to nurses next year and that we have supported nurses to be ready to undertake study to this level. And, of course, I hope that more COVID vaccines are created and rolled out!”
Nicky Cunningham, Lead Cardiovascular Research Nurse, South Tees Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, said: “As with all healthcare professionals, this pandemic has forcibly altered research priorities. As lead for the cardiovascular research team, my focus has been on using staff members’ skill sets appropriately whilst maintaining their safety and wellbeing. All 30+ studies we are involved in had to be reassessed to ensure deliverability and maintain patient safety. This meant we had to be innovative with our ways of working and we have surprised ourselves on how well these changes have worked in spite of the increased workload.
“Although recruitment to cardiovascular studies was paused for a while, we still cared for more than 1000 patients already enrolled in our studies. The additional workload and redeployment to work on Urgent Public Health studies have put a tremendous strain on the delivery team, as we have had more responsibilities and have had to learn different ways of working within other teams and departments. Nonetheless, we have continued to care for our patients and effectively deliver research against all adversity.
“We adapted our ways of working in many ways, such as by minimising face-to-face contact and adopting telephone consultations instead. We also run a nurse-led outpatient clinic 5 days a week, which helps us deliver research without overwhelming our consultant outpatients' clinics. We performed risk assessments to allow patients to attend these clinics, wrote Standard Operating Procedures to ensure 'COVID-safe' running of the clinic and made changes to the physical layout of the clinic room to allow for social distancing. Appointments are kept as short as possible and there is a reduction in appointment availability due to the need to clean the room and don/doff PPE between patients.
“My hopes for this next year are that we don't just go back to delivering research as we did pre-COVID, but that we take the time to look at what we have learned and achieved and integrate those lessons appropriately into future ways of delivering research. I hope the relationships developed with colleagues outside of our immediate clinical specialties continue to grow to aid future research delivery within the organisation and region.”
The 70@70 programme, which is funded by the Department of Health and Social Care through NIHR, aims to strengthen the research voice and influence of nurses and midwives in health and social care settings. Find out more about the 70@70 programme.
