RCN Northern Ireland Research and Quality Group

Regional activities

03 October 2012: NIRAQ event on "How to get funding for your project" at RCN Belfast conference suite.  View the speaker presentations (PDF 2.65 MB)

14 March 2012: NIRAQ 2012 conference on:

Celebrating the contribution of research, practice development and quality initiatives to person-centred care. 

  • Key note speakers included Professor Brendan McCormack, Director Institute of Nursing Research, & Head Person-centred Practice Research Centre University of Ulster & Mary McElroy,  Lead Nurse PHA - Safety, Quality and Patient/Client Experience
  • NIRAQ committee invited applications to submit abstracts linked to the “A Partnership for Care Northern Ireland Nursing and Midwifery Strategy 2010-2015” under the  four main headings: Promoting Person Centre Cultures; Delivering Safe and Effective Care; Maximising Resources for Success and Supporting Learning and Development
  • Applicants were asked to demonstrate how they had made a difference to safety, quality or the patient or client experience through a research, practice development or quality initiative?
  • Short listed candidates presented their projects to a judging panel, awarding the 2012 bursary at this event

Winner

Avril Redmond for Fistula First in Belfast (PDF, 1.58MB) who received the Bursary Award for 2012

Runners Up

Olga O'Neill for Developing person-centred pain management practices, with cognitively impaired older people, through a project of facilitated learning (PDF, 1.14B)

Martina Meenan for Development of a Challenging Behaviour Service. A Staff–Centred, Patient Focused Approach (PDF, 984KB)

Other presentations were from:

Ann Scott for Working in partnership with patients and families on a Dementia Assessment Unit to improve care (PDF 1.85MB)

Anne Coyle for Miscarriage - improving the patient experience project.  Learning to manage miscarriage with care and compassion (PDF 634KB)

Mary Lafferty for Raising nutritional standards in an acute care setting (PDF, 801KB)

Pauline Quinn for The Stages of Suicide Bereavement: the five S’s emerging from a qualitative study in Northern Ireland (PDF, 618KB)

 

Bursary award 2012

Registered nurses and midwives practising within Northern Ireland who had completed a project/initiative within the last 12 months were invited to apply for this bursary. The successful applicant was presented with the bursary at the 2012 annual NIRAQ conference on 14 March 2012.

03 March 2011: NIRAQ AGM

This was held on Thursday 03 March 2011 in RCN Headquarters, Windsor Avenue, Belfast.

27 January 2011: an interactive session on IRAS completion

The IRAS interactive workshop, which had been postponed due to the inclement weather conditions, was held on 27 January 2, in Fern House, Antrim. This event was facilitated by 2 research managers, Margaret Smyth and Paul Carlin, from the NHSCT, and SEHSCT, respectively. The event was packed to capacity, and attended by CRNs, Nurse Researchers and PHD students. Evaluation and feedback has been extremely positive, and has provided some suggestions for the content of future events.

21 June 2010: ironing the wrinkles of research governance and ethics

Sixty people attended this workshop. The audience heard from speakers Dr Siobhan McGrath, Paul Carlin and Marina Lupari, and there was a lively debate afterwards. The presentation is available (PDF, 2.6MB).

09 December 2009: Professor Tanya McCance gives inaugural lecture at the University of Ulster

Professor Tanya McCance of the Northern Ireland Research Society gave her inaugural lecture at the University of Ulster on Wednesday 09 December 2009 on the subject of person-centred care, focussing on how person-centred care is effectively operationalised in practice, and the relationship between a person-centred approach and the resulting outcomes for patients and nurses. Contact Tanya on tv.mccance@ulster.ac.uk

27 October 2009: Professor Anne Marie Rafferty gives annual Winifred Raphael Memorial Lecture

The RCN in Northern Ireland in conjunction with the RCN Research Society hosted the prestigious annual Winifred Raphael Memorial Lecture. Professor Anne Marie Rafferty, Dean of the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery, gave a lecture entitled 'The nursing workforce and health outcomes: historical reflections and research'. The event was extremely well-attended and the audience included staff from local universities and NHS trusts, RCN Fellows, the Chair of the RCN Northern Ireland Board, the Chief Nursing Officer for Northern Ireland.

"It's been an excellent lecture... in particular it draws out the importance of research and its impact on policymaking - the importance of getting close to policymakers if we're really going to make a change. I think that's really one of the things that the College in particular has to act on: how do we actually convince people of the merits of the case by the use of good research?" (Martin Bradley, CNO, Northern Ireland)

"Anne Marie Rafferty is a favourite of mine... my passion, being a night sister...is that we have safe staffing levels... I know that research will get us the staffing levels that we require for our patients... it will be wonderful if we can actually change the workforce of nursing in the world, and especially in my trust which I am actually concerned about." (Ann Marie O'Neill, Chair, Northern Ireland Board)

"not only was it informative and erudite... it gave us a real sense of where nursing research has come from and where it should be going in the future." (Professor Carol Haigh, RCN Research Society)

"it was fascinating around Florence Nightingale, particularly the point around using statistics to help you understand the natural order of things, and also... her unashamed utilitarian attitude to statistics - you're collecting figures with a purpose in mind, and a very clear idea that they could be used to argue for change." (Professor Andrea Nelson, RCN Research Society)

A film recording and powerpoint presentation of the lecture are available to view on the Winifred Raphael Memorial Lecture webpages.