Rashmi Bhardwaj

Senior Research Nurse, Newcastle upon Tyne NHS Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Email: Rashmi.bhardwaj@nuth.nhs.uk

Committee member of the RCN Northern Region RCN Research Society

Background

I qualified as a registered nurse and a midwife in 1999 and initially worked in Gynaecology, Neurosciences, and Critical Care & Anaesthetics. In 2005 I moved to a research nurse post in Newcastle. Over the last six years I have worked and led on many portfolio and commercial trials in uro-oncology, melanoma, lung cancer and lately on urinary catheters and cardiological devices.  During this period I also graduated from the Masters in Clinical Research Programme at Newcastle University. Currently I plan to expand my personal research interest by undertaking a PhD.

Current role

I currently work as an Advanced Practitioner/Senior Research Nurse in Cardiology Research which involves both clinical and research commitments. The advanced clinical role required me to set up a new Loop Recorder Service at the Regional Cardiology Centre, Freeman Hospital. Loop recorder is an implantable device that records a continuous electrocardiogram and helps to establish aetiology of cardiac arrhythmias in patients with syncope, pre-syncope and palpitations. This includes performing device implantation, after care and remote follow up. This extended role was exciting for me and I am one of only three nurses in the UK to perform these duties.

The research element required setting up a project; Loop Recorder Carelink, investigating the cost-effectiveness of remote monitoring of loop recorders. This has so far included conducting a retrospective audit to guide finalisation of the research protocol. The project will also examine the effectiveness from both patient and service viewpoints of having a nurse lead.

Research interest

From past four years my personal research interest has been focused around reducing hospital acquired catheter associated urinary tract infections using both quantitative and qualitative methods. This included testing the efficacy of antimicrobial urinary catheters in a large national randomised controlled trial funded by the NIHR Health Technology Assessment Board and more recently I have completed a qualitative study on the timing of urinary catheter removal after surgery from the patient perspective funded by an Alice Cory Fellowship.