The South West Clinical School Journal was brought to life by the South West Clinical School in Cornwall .
The online journal is an extension of their staff engagement activity to encourage writing for publication. For a number of years, the team had run a #400Word writing competition, open to all nurses, midwives and allied health professionals. The competition give staff the opportunity to write and locally publish articles that reflected on evidence informed projects they had planned and delivered in practice.
The first iteration of an electronic journal in 2021, hosted on the Cornwall Health Library’s website, was a way of meeting the challenge of how to disseminate an increasing number of submissions each quarter. This opened up access and readership, and also stimulated others to write for the Journal.
In 2022, ambitions grew and the opportunity to allow these published articles to be better searched and available saw the Journal migrated to be hosted on the University’s Open Access Research Repository – PEARL, where it proudly resides today.
By popular demand, in July 2023, the Journal ceased to be just a Cornwall focused publication. The opportunity to nurture novice talent through journal writing was recognised across the wider South West Clinical School’s region. From September 2023, the Journal is open to all regional Clinical School Nurses, Midwives and Allied Health Professionals to write #400Words for publication.
The editorial in the journal’s first edition explains more behind the concept of #400Words and its ambitions, and is available to read in Nurturing clinical academic talent.
The South West Clinical School Journal is published quarterly, the Journal shares the work of regional colleagues with a wider national and international audience. You can access and read the current as well as back issue of the South West Clinical School Journal.
