Kate Gerrish, Ann McDonnell, Fiona Kennedy

Programme 13.00Welcome & overview of the research projectKate Gerrish 13.15Framework for capturing impact on patient, staff and the organisation Ann McDonnell 13.25Practicalities of capturing impactAnn McDonnell 13.35Toolkit for capturing impactFiona Kennedy 13.55Nurse consultants’ experiences of capturing impact Iain Armstrong Gill Bell 14.15Question timePresenters 14.40Break 15.00Group work – using the toolkit to capture impact Kate Gerrish (co-ordinator) 16.10Panel discussionKate Gerrish (Chair) 16.40Closing remarkKate Gerrish

Kate Gerrish, Professor of Nursing Research University of Sheffield/Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS FT Funded by The Burdett Trust for Nursing

Nurse consultants (NC) introduced into the NHS in England in 2000 Gradual increase in numbers: 1091 NCs in post by 2010 Early evaluation: evidence of perceived impact on service development & leadership of frontline staff (Guest et al. 2004) Overall little robust evidence on the actual impact of NCs Impact of these multi-faceted roles is inherently hard to capture (Guest et al. 2004)

Four components of role Expert practice Professional leadership & consultancy Education, training & development Service development, research & evaluation Issue of process and outcomePotential framework for outcome indicators (Gerrish et al 2007) Clinical significance – patients Professional significance – staff ? Organisational significance – internal and external

To identify a range of indicators to demonstrate the impact of nurse consultants on patient, staff and organisational outcomes To develop a toolkit/guidance to help nurse consultants to demonstrate their impact on patient, staff and organisational outcomes

Stage 1 Systematic literature review (Kennedy et al 2011) Stage 2 Mapping exercise of nurse consultants Stage 3 Case studies of nurse consultants Stage 4 Iterative specialist panel linked to each case study Stage 5 Composite toolkit/guidance

Purposive sampling of 6 NCs in 5 hospitals in 2 trusts to achieve maximum variation whether the NC managed their own caseload whether the NC acted as a specialist advisor to front-line staff the extent to which the role crossed organisational and professional boundaries the extent to which the nurse consultant worked independently or as part of a multi- disciplinary team Specialisms Gynaecology, neonatal care, pulmonary hypertension, sexual health, stroke, urology

ParticipantData collection Nurse consultantIn-depth interview Follow-up in depth interview Professional colleagues Semi-structured interview Patients and family members Semi-structured interview Data analysisFramework approach (Ritchie and Spencer 1994)

Specialist panel for each NC involving the NC, key stakeholders and the research team Areas of impact identified in case studies reviewed and consensus established regarding most important to capture and how NCs worked with research team for 6-8 weeks to pilot between 2- 6 data collection instruments and strategies Follow up interviews with NC Exploration of practicalities of capturing impact

Based on research findings Framework for capturing impact Practicalities of capturing impact Examples of tools used by NCs Initial validation NCs involved in project Wider group of nurse/midwife consultants Project Advisory Group – nurse consultants, chief nurses, lead nurse, patient representatives, academic researcher