Building clinical academic leadership capacity: sustainability through partnership

Greta Westwood; Alison Richardson; Sue Latter; Jill Macleod Clark; Mandy Fader

doi:10.1177/1744987117748348

Building clinical academic leadership capacity: sustainability through partnership

J Res Nurs. 2018 Jun;23(4):346-357. doi: 10.1177/1744987117748348. Epub 2018 Jan 24.

Authors

Greta Westwood¹, Alison Richardson², Sue Latter³, Jill Macleod Clark³, Mandy Fader⁴

Affiliations

¹ Formerly Deputy Director of Research, Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust, Portsmouth, UK; Director of Clinical Practice, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Southampton, UK; Director of Training and Engagement, Faculty of Health Sciences, NIHR CLAHRC Wessex, UK; Now Chief Operating Officer Florence Nightingale Foundation, London, UK.
² Professor of Cancer Nursing and End of Life Care & Director of the Southampton Academy of Research, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Southampton, UK; University Hospitals Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, UK.
³ Professor of Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Southampton, UK.
⁴ Dean of Health Sciences, Professor of Continence Technology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Southampton, UK.

Abstract

Background: A national clinical academic training programme has been developed in England for nurses, midwives and allied health professionals but is insufficient to build a critical mass to have a significant impact on improved patient care.

Aim: We describe a partnership model led by the University of Southampton and its neighbouring National Health Service partners that has the potential to address this capacity gap. In combination with the Health Education England/National Institute of Health Research Integrated Clinical Academic programme, we are currently supporting nurses, midwives and allied health professionals at Master's (n = 28), Doctoral (n = 36), Clinical Lecturer (n = 5) and Senior Clinical Lecturer (n = 2) levels working across seven National Health Service organisations, and three nurses hold jointly funded Clinical Professor posts.

Results: Key to the success of our partnership model is the strength of the strategic relationship developed at all levels across and within the clinical organisations involved, from board to ward. We are supporting nurses, midwives and allied health professionals to climb, in parallel, both clinical and academic career ladders. We are creating clinical academic leaders who are driving their disciplines forward, impacting on improved health outcomes and patient benefit.

Conclusions: We have demonstrated that our partnership model is sustainable and could enable doctoral capacity to be built at scale.

Keywords: NHS; allied health professionals; clinical academic; leadership; midwifery; nursing; partnership.