South West Clinical Schools

What is South West Clinical Schools?

South West Clinical Schools is a collaboration between the University and the NHS to encourage nurses, midwives and other allied health professionals to look at their practice, challenge current thinking, try out new ideas and work out ways to measure what they're doing.

Our work with local health services has identified the urgent need to capture improvements in patient and family outcomes, as well as ensure that existing evidence is used to best effect and increase the amount of research led by non-medical health professionals. 

To meet these needs, we have invested in the clinical schools, which are professorial-led centres, in five local NHS trusts.

Main objectives:

• Develop capacity and capability for clinical research, evidence-based practice and quality improvement activity.
  
• Support the nursing, midwifery and allied health professions' leaderships within the trusts.
  
• Embed a clear clinical academic career path to assist the transition from undergraduate student through newly registered health professional to research leadership roles located within clinical settings.

The School of Nursing and Midwifery and the School of Health Professions are both involved in the South West Clinical Schools, and the staff work beyond the boundaries of these five trusts to support activities in the communities as well.

Harriet Hughes, Physiotherapist, Torbay and South Devon NHS Trust 

Harriet is the latest recipient of the Torbay and South Devon Doctoral Research Fellowship. Harriet has just completed the pre-doctoral award and is now ready to begin her PhD. Her work aims to improve mobility in children with cerebral palsy. 

Harriet will be studying Functional electrical stimulation (FES) as a way to improve knee straightening and walking speed. FES is an electrical pocket device that trains muscles whilst walking, so the child can take part in activity on their own. 

A group of children with cerebral palsy and walking problems will use the device for 4 hours a day, 6 days a week, over an 8-week period, and Harriet will monitor what benefits it brings. If it works well it could be incorporated routinely into physiotherapy treatments for such children in the future. Harriet’s award will fund her time and fees to undertake a PhD at the University of Plymouth, where she will join the Rehabilitation Research Group under the supervision of Professor Jon Marsden.

Vanessa Kavanagh, Podiatrist, Torbay and South Devon NHS Trust

Stephanie Janka-Spurlock, Dementia Education Specialist, Torbay and South Devon NHS Trust

Stephanie has also been awarded the Torbay and South Devon Pre-Doctoral Research Fellowship, which will support her for one day a week for one year to prepare to apply for doctoral-level fellowship funding. 

Her work focuses on improving dementia care in care settings, particularly looking at the provision of meaningful activities and social interactions. 

These activities were very badly affected during the pandemic and this triggered the idea to examine in more detail how this has affected clients and how access to activities and social interaction can be improved in the future. 

Dr Susie Pearce, (Associate Professor Nursing) and Professor Ray Jones (Professor of Health Informatics) from the University of Plymouth, and Dr Rhoda Allison (Associate Director Nursing and Professional Practice) of Torbay Hospital, will provide supervision. 

She will undertake masters’ modules at the University of Plymouth. The award is funded by the Torbay Medical Research Fund.

Kate Taylor, Dietitian, Royal Devon & Exeter NHS Trust

Kate has been awarded a Clinical Research Network Research Associate Award which provides her with one and a half days a week for a year to gain further research experience. 

Kate will work with the Clinical Research Team at the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Trust and Devon Partnership NHS Trust to support NIHR portfolio studies with recruitment, eligibility screening, gaining consent and baseline questionnaires. 

She plans to present her previous research at a conference and write up this work for publication. 

She will also spend time working on a NIHR pre-doctoral fellowship application to support her next step towards completing a PhD around combined dietary and exercise interventions in the prevention and treatment of sarcopenia amongst older adults.

James Bruce, Occupational Therapist, Intensive Care Unit, Torbay & South Devon

James has been awarded a Clinical Research Network Research Associate Award, which provides him with one day a week for six months to gain research experience. 

James will use this time to observe the Clinical Research Team at Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust to understand NIHR portfolio studies. It will also give him the opportunity to broaden his knowledge base of research techniques including attending short courses. 

He hopes to complete a qualitative service development project using focus groups of discharge ICU patients to explore their information needs to support their discharge. 

It is hoped this project will influence practice in our unit and the wider ICU rehabilitation community. He is also using the time to complete an observational project exploring what functional outcome measures track patients' functional journey post-critical illness. 

Joan Redome, Senior Research Nurse, Torbay and South Devon NHS Trust

As a senior research nurse, Joan looks after the rheumatology research portfolio at Torbay Hospital. She is also the lead nurse for BADBIR, which is a dermatology study, and the RECOVERY trial, which has made significant contributions to COVID-19 treatment or management. 

Joan was recently awarded the Torbay Research Associateship, which will allow her one day a week for six months to work with the Torbay Clinical School and develop a clinical academic career.

Joan will be attending workshops and seminars to improve her knowledge of writing her own research proposal. 

Her service development project will involve producing a rheumatology research newsletter to see how this helps increase patient referrals from the clinical team, thereby increasing recruitment to research trials. Dr Susie Pearce (Associate Professor of Nursing) and Dr Rich Collings will provide her supervision.