I am not a ‘clinical academic’, but I am an ‘academic clinician’
An NHS trust's senior research leader role allows Andrew Finney to establish a research culture and encourage future nurse researchers in patient care
When it comes to the field of nursing, not every nurse has been an academic. However, every academic has been a nurse!
I have been a nurse for 27 years, yet 19 of those have been spent in academia. Unlike a medical school model, where academics most often retain a clinical role (and credibility) alongside a role in teaching or research, nursing academia has a long history of removing its nurses from their clinical role entirely; and while this is okay with the Nursing and Midwifery Council, who allow the role of ‘nurse lecturer’ to count for the professional register and its revalidation process, it often leads to an estranged relationship with clinical credibility and clinical confidence over time.
In schools of nursing, there are financial incentives to develop academic staff to combine the educational responsibilities of the role of nurse lecturer with additional research responsibilities. As much as we want to develop nurse academics in this way, we also have to recognise that the priority is always education and teaching as a lecturer, making it extremely difficult to provide research opportunities for lecturers of nursing.
However, the financial difficulties in a struggling higher education sector means that research grants are highly sought after, highly competitive and extremely hard to obtain. Nonetheless, research fellowships and grants at pre-doctoral, doctoral and post-doctoral level are highly lucrative for their host institutions (universities) and with falling student numbers and therefore falling student income, financial income from successful applications to research funding bodies is now a necessity.
Full-time nurse academics could be discouraged by research funding bodies
Yet with research funding bodies encouraging and often insisting on applicants working in some part clinically, full-time nurse academics might be starting to feel ‘left on the shelf’. It is a discouraging feeling. I have worked clinically, but I have since been a lecturer of clinical skills, a lecturer of nursing, senior lecturer of nursing and I am currently ‘reader’. I have had pre-doctoral, doctoral and post-doctoral research funding, but I am not a ‘clinical academic’, so where does that leave me, and other nurse academics and nurse researchers like me?
‘I know that research evidence can improve care at a strategic level by often improving what happens operationally. So, for those that want to engage with research, my aim is to be there to lead the way’
In a drive to encourage nursing research and to implement the chief nursing officer for England’s 2021 strategic plan for research, I fully understand the stance of funders to want to fund practising clinicians and I recognise that it is not their responsibility to provide funding for those in higher education institutions, so what could I do?
In late 2023 I applied for the National Institute for Health and Care Research’s (NIHR) senior research leader (SRL) programme for nurses and midwives. The SRL programme is promoted as an opportunity to shape and embed a research culture in an organisation and beyond. The expectation of the programme is that SRLs will use their knowledge and personal experiences to motivate and enable others to get involved in research to help improve patient care.
NHS nursing staff need an academic clinician to develop clinical academics
I made it clear in my NIHR application that nurses in the NHS need an academic clinician to develop clinical academics.
As a former clinically based nurse, I know the requirements of their roles (irrespective of the specialty), I know the day-to-day demands they face, and I know that research is most often not a priority for nurses or their managers. It will always be, at best, second to direct patient care, and rightly so, but I know that research evidence can improve care at a strategic level by often improving what happens operationally. So, for those that want to engage with research, my aim is to be there to lead the way.
What my experience provides is a breadth of understanding of the research landscape: I have a broad awareness of the funding available to nurses and other health professionals; I know what a strong proposal looks like; and I know how well they need to be written. I also have a broad range of networks, so I know how to match research candidates to the right co-applicant, supervisor or team.
Equally, as a nurse educator for many years I have extensive experience of how to teach, influence and motivate people to become the next research-ready and research-active nurses.
So, I was delighted to find out I had been successful in my SRL application, as this would give me an NHS footprint again, a chance to work with nurses to develop research engagement, to develop research consumerism, develop research literacy among nurses and to further support those who wish to develop research in their roles.
Help for those with an interest in research, research delivery and developing through research training
From those with a simple interest in research, to those responsible for research delivery (in the traditional ‘research nurse’ role) and those wanting to develop through research training (MSc, PhD, Prof Doc), I am now there to help; and where there is a chance to support NHS colleagues with post-doc applications, either as an adviser, or co-applicant on a research project, I am there to help. I want to discover and develop those new to research but equally encourage and support those in a position to thrive in their own research leadership.
‘If I am successful and I achieve my goals and help others to achieve theirs, I will be the first to say, I did it as an “academic clinician” not as a “clinical academic”’
My SRL application needed an NHS partner, and I was lucky enough to be offered an opportunity to work with and for the Midlands Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust. The role of SRL (for the second cohort of this award) began in April 2024 and allows me to work for the trust two days per week for a period of three years.
In that time, I will strive for metrics; who have I helped? What have they achieved? What has been the impact on their roles, their places of work and, most importantly, patient treatment and patient care. If I am successful and I achieve my goals and help others to achieve theirs, I will be the first to say, I did it as an ‘academic clinician’ not as a ‘clinical academic’.
Further information
- Midlands Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (2024) New research appointments to inspire nurses and AHPs at MPFT
- NHS England (2021) Making research matter: chief nursing officer for England’s strategic plan for research
- National Institute for Health and Care Research: Senior research leader programme for nurses and midwives
- Nursing and Midwifery Council: Revalidation
