Yorkshire and Humber CRN shortlisted for a Nursing Times Award for third year in a row

The Yorkshire and Humber Clinical Research Network (CRN) has been shortlisted for a Nursing Times Award (NTA) for the outstanding work on the Newly Qualified Midwives Research Webinar, which aimed to increase Newly Qualified Midwives' (NQMs) awareness and understanding of research. In particular, YH Champion midwife (Jennifer Syson) and the local West Yorkshire and Harrogate LMS Lead Midwife (Sarah Bennett) must be commended for identifying the need for the seminar and constructing such an informative and interactive webinar.

It is highly important that midwives get involved in research to consistently improve obstetric medicine, enhancing the health of mothers and babies. Moreover, women are frequently underrepresented in research and it is critical to cater research specifically towards women. 

There was a clear need for the Newly Qualified Midwives Research Webinar. NQMs perceived research as an academic subject rather than a clinical one and there was limited understanding of what a clinical research midwife was, during the introductory session at the Bradford Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. 

Therefore, it was crucial to create an educational seminar that introduced research to NQMs, underlining how research benefits women in their care and the wider NHS. So the NQMs would be equipped with the confidence to keep up to date with research studies offered in their units, the knowledge of how to refer patients to research teams and be made aware of clinical research as a career option. 

The first seminar was delivered in November 2020 and now 10 sessions have been presented to 70 staff members. The feedback from the seminar has been overwhelmingly positive so the seminar has been presented to the Regional Heads of Midwifery to offer the sessions to other regional LMS areas within Yorkshire and Humber. 

After the seminar the NQMs were asked to fill out an evaluation form, the majority ranked it as (45.2%) or very good (45.2%).

The participants also rated the following aims of the seminar:

• I understand why we do research (83.3% strongly agreed, 16.7% agreed)
• I understand the impact of research (76.2% strongly agreed, 23.8% agreed)
• I understand research as part of the midwives role (76.2% strongly agreed, 23.8% agreed)
• I understand the role of a research midwife (61.9% strongly agreed, 38.1% agreed)

Word clouds were used at the start of the session and at the end to look at words associated with research and it is clear the webinar impressed the importance of research to the NQMs.

Therefore, the seminar successfully engaged the next generation of midwives, increasing their understanding of the clinical applications of research, which will in turn increase women’s participation in research. 

The next steps of the project are to continue to provide the Qualified Midwives Research Webinar to NQMs and hold follow up sessions to understand how NQMs have participated in research, as a result of the seminar. The package is also being presented to Student Midwives at Bradford University at their annual Midwifery Society Day. The CRN is also looking to adapt the package for other specialties, presenting the idea to the Leeds Academic Health Partnership to embed the package into health and social care training, which would reach an estimated 57,000 people. 

Well done to all the teams that dedicated their time and effort to create such a needed and engaging seminar! The recognition by the NTA nomination is certainly well deserved.