What is your current job title and current role?
I currently work as a Nurse Practitioner in a hospital admission avoidance service at Trafford General Hospital. My role is varied and challenging as the service manages chronic health conditions such as Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and heart failure as well as providing urgent care for patients in social crisis and acute medical conditions.

I conduct clinical assessments of patients including cardiac, respiratory and abdominal examinations and liaise with medical staff and other members of the MDT to provide the best possible patient care. I also triage patient call-outs and referrals so resources are efficiently and appropriately allocated. I manage a team of health-care assistants and ensure work is delegated and completed in a timely fashion.

Why are you interested in research and this ARC pre-doctoral fellowship?
Throughout my nursing career I have been passionate about the identification and treatment of pressure ulcers.The dissertation in my nursing masters discussed how nurses distinguished pressure ulceration from moisture associated skin damage (MASD). This was a topic I was able to return to when I succeeded in obtaining the Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care Greater Manchester (CLAHRC GM) 30 day internship. I hope to publish the work I completed with CLAHRC GM and I am currently working on this paper. Pressure ulcers are an issue found in all areas of nursing care and all nurses are expected to be able to categorize them and at least initiate appropriate interventions. This is why I feel that my work on pressure ulcers is essential to all areas of nursing.

The ARC pre-doctoral fellowship is an opportunity to be able to continue this research and progress my clinical academic career. The links and contacts I am making and the research that I am accessing and reviewing through the fellowship are making me a skilled and proficient academic.

My long term research proposal is to investigate how pressure ulcer pain can be managed within the community setting. In 2015 the Pressure Ulcer Programme of Research (PURPOSE) published its findings related to pressure ulcer pain and formation. They found that 75% of community based patients reported pain at pressure ulcer sites. In addition many patients found that their reported pain was not adequately treated by health care professionals. My aim for the fellowship is to scope the available data on how pressure and leg ulcer pain is currently managed within the community. The results of this review will then help direct my research into how the management of pressure and leg ulcer pain can be optimised to the benefit of the patients.

How are you currently involved in research in your job role?
The management team in my current role have always been very encouraging and forward thinking about the benefits of having active researchers within the service. It was my manager that encouraged me to apply for the CLAHRC GM internship. From there I was able to obtain a scholarship grant from the Florence Nightingale Foundation where I developed my current project on pressure ulcer related pain and applied for the ARC-GM pre-doctoral fellowship.