A career with game-changing research

As we celebrate Black History Month 2022, we wanted to take the opportunity to once again congratulate ex-CRN colleague Aderonke Adebiyi, known as Ade, who recently took up the role of Associate Director of Nursing Research at Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust.

Ade moved into the post in June this year and we spoke to her about her plans for the role and her path to a career in research.

Ade first discovered research in 1997. She was working at the time in HIV and sexual health at Queen Mary's Hospital in Roehampton and enjoyed her role but was completely unaware that the hospital was active in research. Ade recalls:

“There was a nurse that came in to do a few shifts after I’d been working there a while. At the time I’d been thinking about what my next steps might be and how to progress my career. Speaking about it, she said ‘Oh, have you thought about research?’ At the time I had no idea
that research nursing existed and had to ask, ‘What do you mean?’”

Being someone who likes a challenge, Ade was initially put off by the claims it might be an easy option. She says:

“She told me, ‘Research is really easy. You just have a few forms that you complete. Patients come in, and you just complete data on them and that's it.’ I thought, yes, that sounds easy, but is it really what I want to do?”

But the fact that she had never heard about research nursing intrigued Ade. She decided to investigate further, and when a job arose at St. George's for a research nurse in HIV, it piqued her interest. Ade continues:

“I read through the job description, and it sounded much more interesting than just filling out forms. I thought, ‘I'll see what it's like; if I don't like it, at least I’ll know.’ I'd worked in HIV and sexual health for a while and knew I had a good understanding of that, so I applied, was given the job, and that was how I started in research.”

From becoming a research nurse in 1999, Ade progressed to becoming a senior research nurse at St. George's, and led a team there for over nine years. She loved the role as there were a large number of drugs and treatments being developed. She says:

“We were, I would say, at the forefront of research, and I absolutely loved it. I just really, really fell in love with research, and the opportunities it offered.

“Looking back, patients with HIV were being seen and being diagnosed and were dying really quickly. They were having to take huge numbers of tablets, sometimes 35 a day. But working in research there over that nine-year period I saw things change dramatically, to the point where most patients lived much, much longer and were on maybe one or two tablets a day.

After nine years in the role and with radical improvements in the treatments available for HIV, Ade turned her thoughts again to her career. She says:

“The fight wasn't over, but things had come so far, I was really satisfied by what we'd done there. We'd managed to really engage the HIV and sexual health service in terms of research, with a big number of nurses in the team involved, but I wanted to try something different.”

Ade’s next step was a move into industry, where she worked as a research coordinator at the head office of IQVIA, then known as Quintiles. She liaised with sites and supported teams in study recruitment but missed being directly involved with patients. She adds:

“I worked there for about 15 months, but it wasn’t long before I missed being able to support patients and their families, and actually seeing the direct impact in terms of their experience and changes in quality of life.”

With this in mind, Ade secured a position at the Royal Free, where she broadened her knowledge through work as an oncology research nurse. She stayed here for two years, loving being amidst patients again and relishing the learning offered by a new area of research. She
says:

In 2012, it was also a time of clinical trial practitioners (CRPs), becoming more prominent in research. Ade developed her natural leadership skills by heading the research CRPs and shaping a successful team, but she wanted to do more.

It was then that a post emerged at North London Cancer Research Network, The role was network manager, but involved a dual role as lead nurse, she explains:

“One of the things that really appealed to me was that it was across several different sites. I was able to go into hospitals and support the teams there with advice and offer my expertise, but it also gave me the opportunity to lead a team in the office. I was able to use my leadership skills and my nursing skills too."

In 2014 the transition to Clinical Research Networks (CRNs) from disease-specific research networks came into being. Moving to CRN North Thames, there were six different divisions, each covering different groups of clinical specialty and Ade took this opportunity to again consider her career direction.

She also developed her abilities in training others. Taking up the position of Good Clinical Practice (GCP) facilitator, alongside her core role, she was soon delivering training in GCP and informed consent as well as Principal Investigator (PI) masterclasses, and next steps courses, which she relished. Her involvement led to her being made training and education lead for North Thames and whilst there, helped introduce a graduate training scheme, supporting students and mentoring them whilst they undertook a Master’s in Health Care Leadership. She says of her time at North Thames:

“It was a really, really good experience in terms of looking at things in a different way, looking at the bigger picture and thinking about things more strategically.”

But Ade again missed working with patients. When, in 2018, an opportunity came up to become head of research nursing at St. George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, she couldn’t resist the lure. She explains:

“Another of my reasons for going to St. George's was to get more experience at a senior level in an acute trust, and to work in a more strategic position.

“I headed up the research delivery workforce of more than 100 staff. I got lots more experience in that role, developing training programmes, local inductions and helping establish more consistency across all the research teams embedded in different areas.

“We also, during that time, put in a successful bid to become an NIHR CRF (Clinical Research Facility). I was part of that team and that felt really great. And in those few years, study recruitment went up too. Of course, it wasn’t just down to me, but, as a leadership team, we
worked really well together to increase recruitment across the board.”

Ade had been in the role for almost four years, when, in 2021, Ruth May, the Chief Nursing Officer for England, pioneered a new strategy for research. One of the core elements in that strategy was nursing research. Ade was immediately excited. She says:

“Research nurses have always supported research that was being done by medics. Occasionally, you will get clinical academics that are nurses or allied health professionals or midwives but that isn’t very common. It's not something that nurses think about as a career pathway.

“We had started doing work around the NIHR Associate PI (Principal Investigator) scheme and began pushing for midwives and nurses to become PIs on studies. The next stage of that was getting nurses, midwives and allied health professionals to actually write the protocols and
come up with their own research questions.

And so, when the prospect of becoming Associate Director of Nursing Research at Royal Free Hospital emerged in December 2021, Ade knew it was the role for her, and one where she felt she could really contribute to. She says:

“Leading a large research team was something I had done before and something that I'm really passionate about, in terms of having a skilled research delivery workforce. But the other part that really fascinated me, was promoting nursing research and promoting AHPs (allied health
professionals) to lead on their own research.”

Ade was successful and started the role in June this year. She is working hard on embedding a research culture in every area and as Ade puts it, “getting everybody involved in research.” She says:

“There are many questions to be answered. How do we embed a research blockchain within the trust as a whole? How can we ensure that everybody from the most junior members to the most senior are thinking about research, to make the Royal Free a totally research-active
trust?

“I've been in post for almost three months now, it's gone by so quickly and there is lots to get my teeth into. We have a new research strategy at Royal Free too, which is built around improving research for patients and improving patient experience and I'm really excited and
keen to be part of that.

“We want to ensure that research is available to all patients. We need to look closer at the inequalities and make sure we find ways to reach out to the underserved communities. What is it that we need to do to ensure that we have research that is relevant to our communities too?”

The five-year strategy incorporates aspects such as study setup, research infrastructure and workforce, collaboration, and patient access to research. Ade is involved in them all, but her core focus is on establishing a research culture and helping staff to further their research careers.

“The other thing that really excites me is the new opportunities for nurses. It will be really, really great to see nurses, midwives and allied health professionals, really pushing those boundaries and writing protocols and coming up with their own research ideas.

Still with fresh challenges ahead of her, Ade has already established a rich and fascinating career in research, and one that she loves. What advice would she give to others seeking a research career? She says:

“I'd say keep an open mind about research. Don't be caught by things you hear. A lot of people assume research is boring, but these are not the people who know. Come and try it. See it for yourself. Research is what you make of it, and it can be extremely rewarding.