The nursing profession takes pride in offering the potential for lifelong learning. At UHSussex, we have a number of training programmes to support our nursing colleagues with their career development, enabling them to deliver the highest quality care for patients.
Our Chief Nurse Fellows Programme, run in partnership with Health Education England, is open to nurses, midwives and allied health professionals up to Band 8a.
Fellows are selected for the year-long programme, which involves undertaking a research project on any aspect of clinical practice that links to our Patient First vision and our quality priorities.
Louise Goodall, Programme Lead, said: “It’s about empowering clinical staff to lead research. We are passionate about creating a motivated, highly skilled workforce that engage with their work to benefit their own careers and provide exceptional patient care.”
The programme is delivered by hybrid learning – face to face and online – over seven and a half hours a week and each colleague is given a personal development plan to identify what is required from them for the year ahead.
Meet some of our scholars
Laurie Benn
Laurie started at the Trust as a Health Care Assistant in 2017, became a Registered Nurse in 2019, and then moved into practice development to support student nurses and nursing apprentices in practice-based learning.
Laurie’s research focused on the barriers to recognising learning support needs in practice-based learning.
He said: “Over the last decade, the majority of research has focused on support for learners with neurodivergent conditions, in particular dyslexia. However, research published in the post-covid era has highlighted the need to address support for learners who may have protected characteristics, as well as those needing support as a result of the ongoing cost of living crisis.”
He will use the evidence from his literature review to collaborate on quality improvement projects within his team, present at the Trust’s Nursing Midwifery and Allied Health Professionals conference this month, and will also submit abstracts to other national conferences.
He added: “By creating a welcoming and supportive environment and developing a sense of belonging for our learners, we can improve patient care and increase our recruitment of newly Registered Nurses.”
Claudio Pani
Claudio is a Critical Care Outreach Nurse whose research focused on the nursing documentation of a deteriorating patient.
He said: “I hope to standardize the nursing documentation over deterioration and escalation, which would allow us down the line to analyse all episodes, identify good practice as well as areas of improvement.
“From the fellowship I learned that being an active part of a change is extremely rewarding on a professional level as well as personal. I feel more motivated in my day-to-day job and I really feel I can make a difference for the organisation.
“It’s amazing to feel empowered in driving a change. It does not necessarily need to be a big change to dramatically improve the quality of care we deliver, our satisfaction at work and our patients experience.”
To learn more about the nursing profession and nursing careers across the Trust visit the nursing careers page of our website. Also make sure you follow our #nursesday celebrations on @UHSussex social media channels.
Nurses’ Day 2023