When you first meet Karen Palmer, it’s her enthusiasm for life and everything research-related which instantly brings a smile to your face.  

Karen, 47, started her nursing career on a cardiology ward at Manchester Royal Infirmary. After an inspirational colleague shared her experience of working in research and what it entailed, she applied for a nursing research post and the rest, as they say, is history. 

“Making research part of everyone’s business is something I feel passionately about,” she says with zest.  

Karen has recently started a new role as an NIHR Senior Research Leader at ARC NWC member organisation Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust, to support nursing & midwifery staff in increasing research capacity and capability at a local, regional and national level.  

From a school leaver with a handful of GCSEs, to her current role as a key regional leader, the rise up the nursing ladder has seen several rungs climbed with the help of ARC NWC, starting with an initial introduction from Dr George Georgiou, who was ARC’s Research Capacity Delivery Manager at the time.  

“George demystified ARC. He told me what ARC offered and ways I could get involved. ARC presented opportunity to increase my profile in the workspace.”  

Karen joined the ARC NWC Internship programme, using the time to prepare a Pre-doctoral Clinical and Practitioner Academic Fellowship (PCAF) application which resulted in her researching physical health inequalities experienced by service users accessing mental health services.  

The PCAF scheme offers salaried time to develop a doctoral fellowship application and to undertake funded academic training that will equip awardees with the skills and experience to access doctoral level funding. 

“The internship provided me with the opportunity to consulate my thoughts around the topic of physical health in mental health I discovered that there are a number of factors that affect mental health nurses ability to feel confident and/or competent to care for the physical health of patients and that ties in with my current role and ambition now, which is to help bridge that gap and promote research further.”  

Recent NIHR data shows a high number of mental health conditions and low participation in mental health research in the North West.  ”I aim to boost efforts to correct this, working with colleagues to develop locally relevant research. I hope that by learning new research skills they can then support others to get involved in research too.” 

Karen also faced wider challenges to her research ambition when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.  

“Maintaining the internship with ARC and doing the day job as COVID 19 raged  required some serious juggling. But I was learning new skills, making connections and engaging with different people so didn’t want the internship to stop. Because of my work in research delivery I have made links with some key academics who are always happy to listen to my ideas and that is very useful for both parties, especially in terms of implementation.  

“COVID was a difficult time with immense pressures, the study needed for the internship was an outlet that actually helped me as it acted as a distraction and made me focus. The internship actually gave me the motivation to progress my research career.” 

It wasn’t long before the next ARC NWC opportunity for Karen would come along.     

“I became involved in the RaCES initiative, after the concept was suggested to me by a colleague from Lancashire Teaching Hospitals, whom had already undertaken one with the ARC MIDAS team. I am very interested in the research process, not just the topic, and I offered to do some commentary pieces to the RaCES team at University of Central Lancashire.  I enjoyed the process. I am a generic nurse, rather than a specialist, so to input to articles bringing together existing evidence such as systematic reviews were useful exercises for me. I have since contributed to many evidence commentaries which have been published. I get quite a buzz from this.” 

Karen is keen to share her experience with others and inspire them to study.  

 “You always need a champion to open doors, an advocate or facilitator and I want to do that for others now. I have now contributed to over five RACES and have shared them with colleagues during the review of policies within organisations. RaCES are one piece of evidence, not guidelines, but can be really useful for organisations as a reference point.  

“The concept of RaCES seemed a win-win to me, it was a great way to collaborate and be published while potentially changing practice. Jo Harrison and the team at University of Central Lancashire have been very supportive and guided me and others through the process brilliantly.”  

Fortunately for ARC NWC, Karen is happy to be an ambassador for the RaCES initiative within her current role.  

“We have professional research forums for nurses, AHPs, Medics and Psychology and I ask colleagues to consider the full portfolio of RaCES where relevant, and feedback on them, so sharing and dissemination of them is happening.” 

Karen’s future ambitions are, however, pointed towards the world of academia.   

“I’m always looking for the next thing and excited at what is on the horizon. I aspire to undertake a PhD and am looking for synergies as I continue my research journey. My dream is to become a clinical academic.”  

Nobody should bet against her achieving that.