NIHR Signals collection to coincide with RCN congress highlights impact of  our research

Our latest ‘My Signals’ collection has been published today online:

https://www.dc.nihr.ac.uk/highlights/my-signals-nursing-collection.htm

This features the personal perspective of three nurses who have identified the Signals that they found the most interesting, useful and significant to their practice.

The collection has been published as part of this year’s focus on nurses as a key audience and to coincide with the RCN Congress this weekend, at which Elaine Maxwell, the NIHR Dissemination Centre nursing advisor is collaborating with the Nursing Times in a fringe event, ‘Keeping up with the Evidence’.

It includes our School’s research:

Checklists are no substitute for experience in spotting patients who are deteriorating

“The nursing workforce is experiencing a protracted transformation, with pre-registration education under review as new entry routes and associate roles are added. The much needed move to an entirely degree educated profession allowed junior nurses, with less senior support, to quickly become expert in assessing and managing the deteriorating patient. I feel that this Signal is important in highlighting the risk of delegating central nursing responsibilities to less experienced practitioners.

“I was also very interested to read the suggestion that simulation training could be utilised to help nurses and teams use these track and trigger systems as changes to nurse education could see an increase in the utilisation of sim training. Nurses often talk of a “feeling” that something is “not right” about a patient’s condition, it is highlighted in this study that the conflict between this and normal clinical observations delays referrals. This “feeling” is really a complex subconscious expert use of clinical judgement and I think it was important that the conflict between this and track and trigger systems be highlighted and that protocols could actually incorporate this to support nurses.”

Read the Signal