Lianne Horscroft, Practice Placement Facilitator has been awarded the Chief Nurse Senior Research Fellowship through Newcastle’s innovative Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Professionals (NMAHPs) Researcher Development Institute (RDI).
Supported through funding by the Newcastle Hospitals Charity, Lianne’s fellowship provides protected time for two dedicated research days per week for 12 months which will allow her to pursue a research study exploring the challenges faced by pre-registration nursing students.
More specifically Lianne aims to better understand the challenges that nursing students experience in clinical practice across the Trust, identifying key themes and determining the essential measures required to improve the practice placement experience.
By understanding the underpinning issues, the team will be able to devise and introduce measures to prevent the challenges that pre-registration nurses face.
As a result the team would expect to see a consequent reduction in the number of students feeling unable to complete the programme, and in turn an increase in the numbers of well qualified, confident students having had an excellent experience and desire to pursue their career with the Newcastle Hospitals.
Direct links to Newcastle’s NMAHPs Strategy
Lianne’s fellowship links directly into the NMAHPs Strategy’s key priority of improve quality and reduce patient harms whilst contributing to the workforce strategy, plan and metrics for improvement.
It is her tenacity and determination to improve the experience of pre-registration nursing students that has ultimately led to success.
“In the summer of 2023, a colleague and I applied for the Dragons Den followed by the REPAIR funding on offer from NHS England” explains Lianne. “We received positive feedback from both applications and were actively encouraged to explore other routes to support the idea.
“Later that year the Chief Nurse Senior Research Fellowship was advertised and it felt like the perfect opportunity.”
Lianne continues “The fellowship supports the development of my research idea, allows dedicated time to explore the challenges faced by our future workforce and the measures required to improve the clinical experience.
“It provides me with the relevant research and leadership support to focus not only on my own questions but also future plans for career development”.
Exploring challenges for student nurses
Lianne describes how she intends to carry out this project. “Qualitative research is the chosen methodology for this study as the research aims to explore the challenges nursing students experience whilst on placement.
“The results will help us to gain insight into each individual’s perceptions, feelings, opinions and experiences, using an inductive style form of inquiry. Feedback will be collated to develop concepts, key themes and findings whilst remaining open to interpretation.
“One to one face to face interviews with final year nursing students to allow for deep exploration of the phenomenon and will continue until data saturation is reached.
“Interviews will involve careful planning and preparation, to include timely invites allowing enough time to consider participation. Furthermore, a pilot test will be performed with one or two people to ensure the interview questions and guide are appropriate and fit for purpose.”
Passionate about improving students’ experience on placement
Anna Telfer, Associate Director of Nursing said she’s delighted to see Lianne awarded with this Fellowship.
“Over the last few years that I have worked with Lianne she has shown a real passion for improving the experience of pre-registration nurses, and the desire and motivation to develop in the Trust.
“I am so pleased to see that she can take this research opportunity forward. I think that this offers exciting potential for Lianne personally and I know that her commitment will ensure that research outputs really improve the experiences and support our pre-registration nurses too.
“Congratulations Lianne!”
Could you be one of our next NMAHP RDI Fellows?
If you would like to find out more about becoming one of our NMAHP RDI Fellows, you can go to our Researcher Development Institute webpage.
Watch our NMAHP RDI video
Our animation explains how Newcastle’s NMAHP Researcher Development Institute programme works across the four seasons of the year.
Contact us
Email the NMAHPs Research Team at [email protected]
