Medway shortlisted for Nursing Times award for work with under-served community
- 12 July 2023
- 2 min read
A CRN Kent, Surrey and Sussex-funded project, led by Medway NHS Foundation Trust to discover the barriers to research among people living with lung disease in Medway has been nominated for a prestigious Nursing Times Award.
Medway NHS Foundation Trust ran an extensive outreach project to engage people directly in the Trust’s lung disease research programme.
The team attended lung disease and lung cancer support groups, asthma meetings, food banks, homeless shelters, shopping centres, a pulmonary rehab group, and libraries.
Through interviews and surveys, the team was able to gain unique insights into the barriers that exist to people getting more involved in research.
The survey results then informed a focus group with members of the public, which set out to address key issues that respondents identified.
While 85% of survey respondents, and most of the people the team spoke with, said they would take part in research, there were significant barriers such as travel, concerns over new medications, time and work commitments.
The four questions in a focus group with members of the public were: How can we raise the profile of research? How can we overcome the travel issues? How can we overcome issues with regards to no time or clashing with work? How can we improve sharing results from research?
Laura Adams, Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) Facilitator for Research and Innovation at Medway NHS Foundation Trust ran the project.
“We are very pleased to be nominated for this award,” she said. “The nomination recognises the importance of Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement in research, and shows the value of reaching out to people in our community, and involving them in our work.
“The CRN funding enabled me to focus on strengthening the Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement at the Trust, making this project hugely successful,” she said.
“This work has highlighted the need for wider awareness of research in general in the community, and created new relationships with external organisations that have led to more research for the community. We will continue to build on this success going forward.”
The project has been shortlisted for the Clinical Research Nursing category in the Nursing Times Awards, sponsored by the NIHR.
