THE REMARKABLE RESEARCH STORY OF MENTAL HEALTH NURSE LAUREN

Lauren Cox, a mental health nurse and cognitive behavioural therapist by background is one of the awardees who has benefited from a from a fellowship with the National Institute for Health and Care Research, underpinned by key support from ARC NWC.

“I’ve been really fortunate in completing the Pre-doctoral Clinical Academic Fellowship (PCAF) internship. There are resources out there to help Health Care Professionals who want to blend a clinical and academic career.”

Prior to attaining the PCAF, Lauren was awarded an ARC NWC research internship, specifically to develop her PCAF application, which ran alongside her clinical work. The internship carved out time and resources to attend relevant events and training, set up supervisory support structures and build her research ideas. It also provided financial and logistical support for Lauren and her team as well as relieving time pressures to make sure everyone who was involved in her service was supported.

“Internships assist your clinical commitments by back filling pay, so they can replace you for the days you miss. I do think one of the biggest hurdles is getting support from the team that you’re working in, because if they think you are just going to disappear for the year, they will be a team member down which may impact service users and the team. Getting buy in from the clinical team about what you are trying to do is incredibly important.”

The internship enabled much needed time to be ring-fenced, while being a busy clinician, to develop Lauren’s Masters dissertation in 2017 but worked with ARC to develop (a qualitative systematic review), which she worked with ARC to publish it in a peer reviewed journal in 2019; a key requirement fellowship funders are keen to see on fellowship applications.

Lauren recalls that one of the primary benefits of the PCAF fellowship was the ability to merge academic, research and clinical skills to make a difference in her chosen discipline.

“The PCAF enabled me to set aside time to apply for an NIHR funded Clinical Doctoral Research Fellowship, and to brush up on a variety of my skills, particularly those related to research. I was able to forge important connections with clinicians and academics, undertake important supervision and training and hone my research proposal. I was able to take research findings associated with my proposal to national conferences to promote the topic, make connections with other clinicians and showcase my project ideas. The poster also won an award at an NMHAP’s event.

The PCAF allowed Lauren to remain in frontline clinical services and remain part of a multidisciplinary team. Remaining one day in a clinical practice whilst completing the PCAF allowed Lauren to work with more complex at risk mental state patients where her observations were used to build her proposal.

Lauren recollected: “The fact that you can be embedded in clinical work and research work is incredibly valuable as a researcher. Rather than applying for a PhD which meant me stepping out of clinical practice it enabled me to have the time in my service too, to ensure the proposal was meaningful to both service users and clinical service needs. Clinical academic fellowships support and develop your research skills as well as the clinical skill set required to further your research and clinical leadership pursuits.”

During the PCAF, Lauren was also awarded a bursary to develop a Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) group to understand issues from service user and carer perspectives. The PPI group supported Lauren to define the research priorities, questions, design and methods which were important to the user group and provided feedback on how to reach and keep the clinical population involved in the study. The group built on the project ideas by understanding issues from a user and carer perspective, and confirmed the importance of the research topic. She presented the accompanying poster at an NIHR conference which was well received by attendees.

“After the PCAF I was successful in gaining a place on an Early Career Researcher programme (RDS NW), which strengthened my creativity, networking and leadership skills, fostering understanding around how to embed research into clinical practice and motivate others to do so.”

Internships and fellowships allow for internal and external network growth, providing opportunities to link in with ARC’s’, Clinical Research Networks (CRN’s), academics across universities and disciplines, a wide range of clinicians, RDS services and public advisors. A wide range of organisations and knowledge of these provide a key support system. Lauren explained that although there are a lot of opportunities it can be overwhelming to begin with.

“It’s difficult at the beginning to get your head around all the acronyms and who works with who across lots of different teams. However, once you start the Fellowship and meeting people, once one door opens 10 more doors open.”

Originally reaching out to her supervisors in 2018, Lauren believes that identifying the right supervisor to get in touch with and who is appreciative of your project is a really important factor.

“The support your mentors, academic supervisors, and clinical supervisors provides really does make a difference to the experience. They understand your strengths and areas for development, and can equip you with the resources and contacts on how to hone your skills.”

Lauren made full use of the resources that were available to her during her time on the PCAF, including enrolling on master’s research modules at The University of Manchester.

“This set me up to understand how to plan and design my research and commence my protocol. This meant a lot of the preliminary work was done, which illustrated to the Clinical Doctoral Research Fellowship (CDRF) panel I could meet requirements to undertake the research at PhD level”.

Lauren explained although she already had a masters, this was based around psychology and clinical skills, and that to meet requirements for an NIHR funded doctoral programme, funders required applicants to have some formal training in research skills and methods. The PCAF allowed Lauren to finish her CDRF application too, “As a busy clinician it is difficult to find the time, funds and support to do it.”

The (CDRF) enables registered health and social care professionals to obtain a PhD by research whilst concurrently developing their professional skills.

One of Laurens favourite parts of her fellowship was the ability to merge clinical and academic practice to make real changes. Getting this application right is imperative as “You have to prove in your application that you use the skills that you acquire through the fellowship through leadership in your position and you’re going to be able to lead and drive on change within the NHS.”

Lauren was successful in her application for the CDRF and started in April 2022. She is currently working on setting up the qualitative phase of her body of research as part of her PhD project.

“Exploring and addressing at risk mental state (ARMS) service user disengagement in collaboration with service users’. The study will take place across several locations across the UK including Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Cheshire. Recruitment is planned to commence in July 2022.”

If you would like more information on being involved in the research, please contact Lauren at: lauren.cox@gmmh.nhs.uk

You can find out more about fellowship opportunities here:
NIHR ARC NWC Research Internships
PCAF
CDRF