About us

The RCN Research & Development Co-ordinating Centre (R&DCC) is a member-driven resource that promotes excellence in care through nursing and health R&D.

Working with the RCN Research Society, and responding to the RCN Strategic Plan 2008-2013 to: "Ensure the RCN contributes evidence-based information to developments in health and social policy", our work is co-ordinated into three themes:

• policy
• networking
• dissemination

We work with internal RCN departments and external partners to market our work and fulfil our corporate responsibilities. This website and a weekly electronic bulletin is our main conduit for information flow.

Policy

• RCN Research Strategy. Find out how the implementation of this piece of work is progressing. More...
• Academy of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting Research. Launched in February 2009, it will act as a collective voice in promoting excellence in research. More...
• Promoting Excellence. When nursing executive directors of NHS Trusts were seeking to identify how R&D could help them achieve their corporate objectives we facilitated the development of a shared vision for R&D. More...
• Clinical Academic Careers. The UKCRC Subcommittee for Nurses in Clinical Research [Workforce] report (2007) offered recommendations for establishing clinical academic research careers in nursing. More...
• Increase funding for nursing research.  The RCN R&DCC is now working in partnership with RDInfo to provide information about sources of research funding. In addition, we have developed a simple matrix of the major UK funding bodies, their respective scientific boards, any known nurse membership, and details of how to apply. We have done this in an attempt to improve the awareness amongst these large funding bodies of the important nursing contribution that can be made in the research endeavour. More...

Networking

• Regional Research Society networks. Building capacity and supporting neophyte researchers on a local level are two of the key principles behind the regional networks of the RCN Research Society. More...
• Doctoral Student Network. The aim of the RCN Research Society Doctoral Student Network is to support those people undertaking PhD's and Professional Doctorates. More...
• Academic research interests. In order to facilitate greater opportunities for meaningful collaboration between clinicians, managers, researchers and policy-makers, we work in partnership with the academic community in the UK to produce an online, fully searchable, database of Higher Education Institutions, their research interests and details of PhD supervision. More...
• International networking. Our main networking internationally is through our involvement with the Workgroup of European Nurse Researchers (WENR), but we are also leading a Delphi Study to help us move forward our international agenda

Dissemination

• The website. This website covers funding and job opportunities, research networks, policy documents and research governance arrangements, study days, courses and conferences. It's a one-stop-shop for all your nursing R&D needs. If you can't find what you're looking for, let us know, and we'll see what we can do.
• The weekly electronic bulletin. Every Monday, we send out an electronic bulletin to thousands of our stakeholders to keep them informed in a concise, timely way of all the latest developments in the world of nursing R&D. We endeavour to have a link R&D nurse/manager in every higher education institution (HEI) and NHS health care provider in the UK; these stakeholders in turn cascade this information via their local networks. This list is updated biannually. More...
• The RCN international nursing research conference is the annual showcase conference of the RCN Research Society and, outside Congress, is the largest RCN event in the calendar. More...
• The Winifred Raphael Memorial Lecture (WRML) is the annual public lecture of the RCN Research Society, and draws together a variety of nurses from different nursing and geographical areas. More...
• Online database of healthcare journals. To help increase the quality and quantity of nurse-written published research, we work with editors and publishing houses to produce an online database of healthcare journals (updated annually) which actively encourage nursing submissions. More...
• Online database of postgraduate research training opportunities. The RCN Research Society understand the need for increasing the capacity and capability of the nursing research workforce, and we now have a comprehensive listing of postgraduate research training opportunities in the UK. More...

Partnership working (internal)

The RCN Research & Development Co-ordinating Centre lies in the Resources for Learning & Improving department of the Learning & Development Institute. To help us achieve our goals, we work very closely with several RCN departments, including:

• RCN Library & Information Services, promoting the Akinsanya Award for innovation in doctoral nursing and promoting the RCN Steinberg Collection of nursing theses
• RCN Events for the annual international nursing research conference
• RCN Digital Communications Team for the website and weekly electronic bulletin and for bringing in-house the online abstract system for the RCN international nursing research conference
• RCN Nursing Department working with the RCN's other professional advisers
• RCN International Department and Digital Communications Team to identify European-wide nursing research priorities

Evaluation of the advice and information arm of the RCN R&D Co-ordinating Centre

"The RCN R&D Co-ordinating Centre provides an excellent service to a large number of nurses and others with an interest in research".

This is just one of the key messages from the published report: Johnson, M. & Haigh, C. (2005), Royal College of Nursing Research & Development Co-ordinating Centre Website Evaluation Report, Salford Centre for Nursing, Midwifery & Collaborative Research, University of Salford, Salford.

Other messages from the study include; "Many of the features of the web and email service, and especially the approachability and responsiveness of the staff responsible are highly commended by users".

The report also provides useful and detailed information on how the service can be further enhanced. We are not able to send out printed copies of the report, but you can download a PDF version: RCN Research & Development Co-ordinating Centre Website Evaluation Report (PDF, 933K)

If you have difficulty opening the documents please contact Dave O'Carroll, email: david.ocarroll@rcn.org.uk.