Our research

Project highlights

• Working with the World Health Organisation in North Macedonia

  Earlier this year, we led and completed a prestigious project for the World Health Organisation (WHO) in North Macedonia, in collaboration with the North Macedonian Minister for Health and Minister for Education. We undertook a 3-month project, with ethics approval, during the global pandemic which was focused on establishing the feasibility of large scale national reform of nursing education. The study was undertaken in 4 phases – scoping literature review; Delphi survey; participatory Sprint workshops and; creation of the reform roadmap. A key deliverable was completed on time, and the presentation of the report to the Ministers for Health and Education, the Diplomatic Office and the WHO North Macedonian office. We succeeded in this undertaking and used a wide range of innovative online approaches (including synchronous translation) to actively engage with nurses, medical staff, educators, politicians and leaders to hear a full range of perspectives.

  Completed November 2021

• Evaluating the Emergency Medicine Leadership Programme

  We are currently undertaking a national evaluation of the Emergency Medicine Leadership Programme on behalf of Health Education England (HEE) in collaboration with the Centre for Care Excellence for Nursing, Midwifery and Health with UHCW. We have constructed an experienced research and clinical interdisciplinary team, skilled in a variety of innovative data collection methods and stakeholder engagement approaches. We are working at scale and pace to complete the project within a 5 month window using online, synchronous and asynchronous approaches.

  Nov 2021 - June 2022

• Ensuring healthier lives: Healthcare Partnerships co-designing education and leadership ‘train the trainer’ programmes to strengthen sustainable maternity care provision in Somaliland (MATER-SOM)

  This project focuses on developing and evaluating a train-the-trainer programme to upskill midwives in Somaliland to enhance workforce capacity, particularly in rural and nomadic communities. It has been funded by THET and is being undertaken with the Edna Adan University in Somaliland. Harnessing expertise from midwives, nurses and clinicians from Somaliland and UK, alongside Somaliland graduate midwives, we are identifying challenges in access and equity in maternity care and exploring the training needs of midwives.  We’ll be developing and piloting a training programme with a number of master-trainer midwives, offering them support through a ‘buddying’ framework for knowledge transfer.

  Nov 2021 – March 2022

• Simulation projects

  This project will build a clinical virtual simulated placement, to develop leadership and digital literacy, in early-career nurses in the United Kingdom and overseas. The mission of this project is to develop, deliver and evaluate innovative, realistic collaborative simulations to create digitally literate, early-career nurse leaders. The goal is to achieve excellence in simulation education and research, to assure the highest standards of ethics, safety, quality and governance within collaborative nurse development. Virtual simulated placement (VSP) is the use of browser-based virtual environments to simulate patients, clients, users and colleagues to develop proficiency capabilities by working through life-like, challenging situations. The VSP will be implemented within organisations based in the UK, Ireland, USA and Uganda, providing cohorts of early-career nurses with the opportunity to benefit from cross-cultural networking and a broad perspective on leadership and digital nursing in diverse contexts. This directly benefits patient outcomes where digitally competent nurses will support the delivery of care.

  October 2021 - October 2022

• Evaluation of Training Provision for Psychological Therapies for Severe Mental Health Problems (Jan – April 2022)

  An interdisciplinary Coventry University research team (led by Professor Rosie Kneafsey), are undertaking a national evaluation of all training programmes within the remit of Psychological Therapies for Severe Mental Health Problems (PTSMHP). Commissioned by Health Education England, the evaluation will comprise of an appreciative inquiry considering aspects of training quality, but also the processes underlying training delivery from the perspective of multiple stakeholders. It will involve a questionnaire survey of training participants, a desktop review of training resources, and an in-depth qualitative strand comprising of semi-structured interviews and focus groups with course teams, clinicians, leaders and managers.