Reports from the RCN members of the Mary Seacole 2010 Leadership and Development Awards

The four recipients of the Mary Seacole 2010 Leadership and Development Awards who are RCN members were invited to the RCN 2011 annual international nursing research conference. The reports of their experience follows:

 Stacy Johnson, Opal Greyson, Esther Craddock, Mylene Freires and Laura Serrant-Green

Esther Craddock

As a Mary Seacole Leadership award winner I was supported to attend the 2011 RCN annual international nursing research conference in Harrogate with a bursary from the RCN Diversity Unit.

In a space with so many academics it did feel rather heady. It was an international meeting so I had an opportunity to speak to nurses from Thailand, Australia and Canada. I enjoyed meeting up with my fellow MSA awardees to share observations and notes about the conference. It was clearly obvious that there were few BME (black minority ethnic) faces around– did it mean that they were not involved in research, were not interested or avoided research. The internet café was a boon as it was good to access e-mails at a residential conference. As it was my first time at the conference it was very helpful to have help from the staff in red t-shirts who helped navigate my way round the conference and concurrent events.

There were many workshops on offer which made choosing difficult. I did look for subjects in my specialist areas –mental health, equality & diversity and carers. There were limited sessions on mental health and the focus for my interests, were too narrow. However, there is scope to learn from vastly different subjects and look at the outcomes rather than direct matching and mapping of areas. I can appreciate that but would have still liked to have seen more papers presented on mental health. It is a gap that I need to take back to my Trust.

Many of the research papers did not address race and ethnicity primarily because they did not have the diversity within their sample group. What does that say about access to services and recruiting of subjects? I noted too that it was a genuine frustration of presenters that they did not have the diversity.

There is universality of some concerns and the scope of transferability of learning. I valued the presentations on carer engagement and there were a number of workshops on working with service users as partners. It was inspiring to hear committed staff, asking the difficult questions about deficits in services and advocating development and change. I was interested that in a number of workshops the key question was in ‘what happens next?’ as the paper had clearly identified a shortfall or some concern. The challenge was in creating a buzz in the audience and there was much to be learnt in the questions that the audience asked. It is important that we do look critically at practice and ensure that changes happen to improve practice. Also, are policy makers and decision makers hearing these findings?

It was good to hear nuggets of information e.g. gender interplay in care and how staff (sadly) maintain the stereotypes. There were many examples of collaborative research. It was also clear that research takes commitment – one on nurse consultants had taken 6 years.

I had my moment in the spotlight with my fellow awardees –when we were presented to the delegates by Professor Laura Serrant-Green. It was good to meet a former MSA awardee who wished us well and gave us some helpful tips on being a Mary Seacole scholar.

The conference was a great learning opportunity, meeting like minded colleagues and networking. For example, as a group we plan on a shadowing opportunity at the Department of Health. This was agreed with David Foster, Deputy Chief Nursing Officer who we met at the conference. It is great to know that there are people out there with similar interests and who want to improve patient care using an evidence based model.

Esther Craddock, Education & Training Adviser, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust
Project: "Enhancing the mental health carers' contribution to healing"
Contact: Esther.Craddock@slam.nhs.uk

 

Mylene Freires

Whenever I get the opportunity to attend a conference, I always make the most of it. I would be running from one session to another just to make sure that I do not miss out on what I consider is something current, vital or relevant to what I do. But for some reason, I always seem to miss the best sessions or the session people talk about during the conference coffee breaks and lunches. Occasionally, I agonised about missing a good symposium because I chose to attend a different session. Despite of the emotional havoc that conferences often elicit from me, I still look forward to attending one because the truth is I enjoy attending conferences and relish the fact that I personally gain from it.

The 3 day RCN annual international nursing research conference in Harrogate in May 2011 had a huge impact on my perception of nursing research. The sessions I attended gave me the opportunity to see what nursing research is about, what it can do and how it impacts on service provision and patient’s experience within the healthcare system. It sparked my interest to think creatively on how I could improve my practice and the service that I provide for oncology and haematology patients. It allowed me to critically look at myself and assess areas within my service I could develop further through research and ensure best practice. It also helped me make up my mind to pursue doctoral studies.

The sessions at the conference were very diverse and catered to different interests. It was also fun to meet delegates from other countries and listen to their own experiences of doing their own studies. The conference was well organized and the rooms were set up next to each other that it wasn’t arduous to get from one session to another. It was an eye opener and I would surely aim to attend the conference next year and perhaps will get the opportunity to present or submit my own work. 

I thank the RCN for inviting me and the other Mary Seacole awardees to the conference as it afforded us the opportunity to spend time together, to take part and encouraged us to consider research in our own clinical practice.

Mylene Freires, Advanced Nurse Practitioner for Venous Access, Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust
Project: "Development of a nurse-led Port-a-Cath insertion service for patients with sickle cell disease on red cell exchange programme"
Contact: Mylene.Freires@gstt.nhs.uk

 

Opal Greyson

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the RCN for funding my placement to attend this year's RCN annual international nursing research conference, held in Harrogate, 16 - 18 May 2011. I must admit that before receiving the Mary Seacole Award in 2010 I was not aware that the RCN held annual international nursing research conferences; I am grateful to the Mary Seacole Steering Group for choosing me.  Receiving the Mary Seacole Award to do my project has given me the opportunity to gain more insight into nursing research.

As a viral hepatitis nurse in a specialist field I was used to working with doctors so was more involved with medical research and failed to recognise that nurses undertake and lead fantastic research projects to improve the quality of care and enhance nursing practice. Nurses are no longer just satisfied being assistants to medical research but are researchers in their own right.

During the three days I was amazed by the number of academic and clinical nurses undertaking their own research and sharing their experiences and knowledge with others. The 3 days provided me with an opportunity to network with a range of local nurses and other health professionals as well as those from abroad.

I had the opportunity to attend a variety of sessions, the most interesting session were the research projects that involved patients which are very similar to my own patients groups:

I had the pleasure of meeting and being formally acknowledged by the speakers for my contributions; and I must say it was a real honour.

Though there were many sessions to chose from I felt at times the issues faced by BME groups (patients and staff) in acute and primary settings were not fully addressed and I would have loved to have seen more research that included the BME community.

This conference has been a great experience as three of the current Mary Seacole Award holders were also present: Esther Craddock, Mylene Freires and Stacy Johnson as well as two past Mary Seacole Scholars; Professor Laura Serrant-Green and Professor Gina Higginbottom who are both inspirational leaders and role models.

I believe more nurses should attend this conference as it would provide them with a greater insight into the numerous possibilities of what could be achieved and what improvements could be made to patient care.  It would enhance their own professional development as they would be encouraged and motivated by such high calibre of leading experts. 

I would like to send an acknowledgement to Gabrielle McClelland who showed an interest in me and imparted some valuable words on the last day. I am now inspired and encouraged to raise to the challenge of getting more involved with the world of nursing research. Thank you RCN.

Opal Greyson, Hepatitis Nurse Specialist, Bedford Hospital NHS Trust
Project: "To improve access to Hepatitis C Testing for the Sub Asian Community"
Contact: Opal.Greyson@bedfordhospital.nhs.uk

 

Stacy Johnson

All of the Mary Seacole awardees who are RCN members, received funding to attend the full three days of the RCN Research conference in Harrogate in May. The research presentations I attended gave insight into the quality of work that I have to produce for my Mary Seacole research report due in July and research presentation scheduled for October.

World Class Research

One of the highlights was the opening charge from RCN President Andrea Spyropoulos. I also particularly enjoyed Prof. Sarah Hewlett’s paper on service user involvement in research because the co-presenter was a service user. I attended concurrent sessions on a range of subjects including practice based research e.g. studies on how diabetic patients presented at A&E, nurses assessment of pain and assessment of acutely ill patients.

I also listened to papers on the use of methodology from theatre studies and Q methodology and a rousing debate around the thorny issue of rigour in grounded theory.

The paper on using action research to build research capacity and capability was particularly useful since action research is the methodology that I am employing for my Mary Seacole project.

Key lessons from this year's conference

I have attended many conferences over the years so I was keen to take away something fresh and new from this one. I feel I have achieved three significant outcomes.

Firstly, I listened to the keynote speakers with a different perspective as I felt that these would be similar in nature to what I wanted to achieve for my presentation at the Mary Seacole awards ceremony in October. I noted that the speakers that I found most compelling and who held my interest were those with quiet, calm delivery. This is in direct contrast to my own presentation style which is usually quite animated. I aim to incorporate this more low key approach into my presentation.

The second was networking. I am usually not shy at conferences at all but the Mary Seacole label seemed to take me to a new level of boldness and confidence. In addition I had the company of fellow awardees and previous Mary Seacole Scholars Prof Serrant–Green and Dr Gina Higginbottom. I found myself approaching senior figures who I might otherwise not have had the confidence to approach. I spoke to Prof Martin Johnson about a University in Henan Province of China that I had visited in the previous month which I thought would make an excellent conference venue for the next NET/NEP conference in 2014. I asked Dr David Foster about shadowing opportunities with the Department of Health. I have followed both of these up and am optimistic that something will come of both of these contacts.

The third significant thing was that I chaired concurrent sessions for the first time at a conference. I would not have been able to attend the conference without the financial support of the RCN so this provided a unique opportunity to chair. In addition, I am not sure that I would have had the confidence to do this had I not been a Mary Seacole Awards holder.

Day Three: Presentation of awardees to the delegates

The Mary Seacole award holders were presented to the conference by Prof. Laura Serrant-Green in a plenary session on the final day. This was excellent as it raises the profile of the awards but also identified us to the delegates. This meant that a number of conference delegates approached us afterwards asking about our projects suggesting colleagues that we might get in touch with useful resources and so on.  I gained valuable exposure for the project from this.

Plans for next year's conference

The other awardees and I are keen to contribute to maintain the prestige of the award and disseminating the findings of our projects as widely as possible. Consequently, we have agreed that we will build on the experience of this year’s conference by submitting a proposal for Mary Seacole Symposium at next year’s conference. 

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to the RCN for the financial support that enabled me to attend the conference.

Stacy Johnson, Lecturer, School of Nursing, Midwifery and Physiotherapy, University of Nottingham
Project: "An exploration of critical issues for students from black and minority ethnic (BME)  groups when developing access, recruitment and retention practices for all degree nursing education in the UK"
Contact: Stacy.Johnson@nottingham.ac.uk