Developing Learning Opportunities for Student Nurses
Hello Everyone,
Yesterday’s TweetChat (Wed 20 Nov) kindly hosted via @WeNurses was a roaring success, & really
got people talking about the role of the CRN. Transcript available here: buff.ly/1hVArLZ
Several themes emerged, one of which was the lack of opportunities for student nurses to learn
about the role of the CRN, and what we do. With this in mind, I was wondering if anyone has any
experience of setting up learning opportunities/placements so student nurses can better understand
our role. Another point which was raised by several participants was that nursing research needs to
be embedded into our culture, & not merely viewed as an ‘add on’. Does anyone have any
experience of making links with local universities, so this can be developed?
Any ideas would be much appreciated!
Many thanks,
Niki Fulstow
Clinical Research Nurse
Hello
We work 3 systems in our trust which has students from 2 unis – for oxford brookes uni students we
offer
A full time practice placement mentored by a research nurse
Day visits
With uni of beds we have set up a system that is a compulsory part of training for all 2nd year mental
health nursing students by which they all attend a one day workshop and following this they
individually shadow a research nurse for a day.
We are also invited to attend uni careers days for students about to qualify and to speak as part of
their evidence based practice module.
Anyone who would like more info – please get in touch.
Chrissie Dransfield
Research Nurse
Hi Niki,
To date most of our placements are organised on an elective basis, though this is something that the
RCN, NIHR and Trust CRN leads are looking at developing.
In terms of embedding the concept into undergraduate nursing programmes. This is beginning to
happen, but again in somewhat of a piecemeal way. Here at Edinburgh Napier University, we have a
session with our student nurses at the beginning of 3rd year about clinical research and introduce the
CRN role. Additionally, for students undertaking their honours year, Clinical Research in Practice is a
core module http://www.modules.napier.ac.uk/Module.aspx?ID=NMS10102 This includes
information on topics such as GCP, research ethics and informed consent.
With regards to engaging with local Uni’s. To start with, you could find out about careers session
they offer and ask if you could be involved with those.
Cheers
Gordon
Gordon Hill
Associate Director
Edinburgh Academy of Clinical Research Education
Hi,
Thanks to everyone that took part in the tweet chat, definitely starting to raise the profile of Research
Nursing!! http://www.wenurses.com/MyNurChat/archive/archivewenurses19112013.php for all the
chat info.
The Stroke Research team in York are integrated into the Stroke MDT, Students that are on
placement on the Stroke Unit spend a day with myself or my colleague, getting a brief insight into the
role of the Research Nurse, and the feedback has been very positive, with most of the students not
having come across the role before. Feel that there is a lot of work to be done to get the role more
integrated into the student pathway to help them access this fantastic role.
There is definitely a shift in raising awareness of research, both to patients, public and staff, the NIHR
OKtoASK campaign was a great example of this on a national level, locally within Stroke at York we
are raising awareness through a Visibility Project that we are running in conjunction with the 4 Ps of
Research. This is helping to make patients, carers, public and staff more aware of Stroke Research
locally, and utilises very simple tools. Helping to embed research into the Ward and Hospital culture.
If anyone would like more info please get in touch.
Cheers
Michael Keeling
Stroke Researcher
Yorkshire Stroke Research Network
Hi Nikki
Here at Central Manchester we offer a ‘Hub and Spoke’ model to our student nurse placements.
Students are based with a mentor in the Manchester CRF and then have spoke placements within
the Trust to our research teams that sit within the clinical areas – for example, renal, diabetes, A&E,
paediatric oncology, sexual health etc.
We offer nearly 20 spoke placements for students to choose from on which they feel will help them
meet their objectives.
As a division we link in very closely with the Practice Educator Facilitators and this has improved our
links with the University and promotes us a student placement. We have also joined the presenters
at our Trust’s Inter-professional Student Seminars. These we present half a day programme each
academic semester for students (mainly nurses, but some AHP’s too). In the programme we cover
the role of the CRN, informed consent, GCP and then a few of the research areas also present their
specific research. This shows the students what we do and as a Trust we have to offer them in terms
of Clinical research placements – and has been received really well.
We have a competency based student programme – and are currently in the process of updating this
– but happy to share our current programme if this helps?
Thanks
Janette
Janette Dunkerley
Clinical Research Nurse Manager
Hi everyone,
We have started having students join us in the past month. We have links with the Universities as
some nurses we work with also do occasional lectures there, so we had a lead. The university give
students the option of spending time with us and they choose if they want to. 16 out of 24 have
chosen to.
Students here do a research module for the 1st term of their 2nd years and we have therefore given
them the opportunity to spend 1-2 days with our research team during this semester which is
counted as some of their clinical hours. We know it isn’t much but hopefully they will learn about
what we do practically rather than just theory. The feedback we have had so far has been very
positive.
Thanks,
Zoe
Zoe Young
Paediatric Research Nurse
Department of Paediatrics, University of Oxford,
We have recently been audited as a placement for student nurses, however we have had to use our
links with clinical teams so that we can “share” the role with the local Integrated Mental Health
Team. We are a very small team of 6 and would not be able to provide a satisfactory full time
experience for a student nurse. We are awaiting our first student next month…. So watch this space!
We have also recently raised the issue about the culture re research. We have changed providers of
electronic noting systems and have gone from sitting in “Corporate, Research & Effectiveness” to
“Corporate HQ”. Not at all satisfactory – we have raised this as an example to the Trust of how we
are not being considered. Again, will keep you posted! We have managed to forge good links
through the local university, via the Practice Learning Team forum and having an office in their
buildings.
Regards
Barbara Keogh
Research Nurse LPFT
Hi CRNs!
I developed a “hub and spoke” placement for student nurses in within our research unit. The
student’s main placement is CCU, we have them for a set week in our Cardiovascular BRU. I devised
a student induction pack and email this to the students before their placement. I ask the students to
set themselves objectives to gauge what their preconceived ideas are first- this has been quite
enlightening!
I try to provide a diverse placement with all our sub groups: Heart failure, Acute STEMI studies,
Surgery, HTN teams etc. The students have liked spending time in the lab and watching our detailed
cardiac MRI scans which has helped them with their A&P.
We have received fantastic feedback from the students and the CRNs have enjoyed having the
mentoring role back! As a group of nurses I think we have a lot to gain from mentoring students, I
would really recommend it!
I’d be very interested to see what other groups are doing if they’re willing to share.
With kind regards
Mary Harrison
LC-BRU Research Nurse
HI Everyone,
We have just had our first student placement in AWP R&D and it has been pretty successful.
It has meant that staff have had to consider how they can include a student in the research
activities that they are involved with and with regards to attaining the set competencies we
have needed to be creative and flexible; however, the Practice Education Facilitator has been
supportive and the student evaluation very positive.
It has been agreed that we will only take 2nd and 3rd year students and that this will be the first
placement of that year, so that if there are competencies that require a more physical
environment they have the second placement to achieve these.
During the placement we try to offer an opportunity to attend a GCP course and if this is not
possible encourage this to be done on line.
Whilst this is a work in progress and there have been some hiccups, it has been a very positive
experience for our dept and the student. We now have our second student just starting with us
and will be using the feedback to continue to improve what we offer.
It has also been suggested that we look to promote the placement to students to increase
awareness of the opportunity, but we feel that it does require students who are motivated and
have a level of maturity to take advantage of the opportunities available without needing to be
“spoonfed”
Best wishes
Karen