NW Research Workforce, Learning & Development

Research Delivery Workforce Update

December 2021

Welcome to our Update page, where we intend to share regional & national updates related to training & research delivery workforce matters.

Please ensure you scroll to the bottom.

Have your met your NW Research Workforce Team?

LCRNs GM & NWC have entered into a collaboration to provide a single CRN WF Function across the North West.

The North West Research Workforce Team now work across both LCRN regions, ensuring that there is a cohesive workforce, learning & development offer to our Partner Organisations and the wider workforce.

Please email us at learning.lcrnsnorthwest@nihr.ac.uk if you have any queries.

Photo of the North West Clinical Research Network Workforce team

(Left to right)

Seonaid Beddows Workforce Learning & Development Manager

Mary Speake - Workforce, Learning & Development Lead

Martin Occleston - Learning Technologist

Laura Donnelly - Learning & Development Administrator

Grace Oyewale - Learning & Development Administrator (below)

Have your met our newest member of team?

We're very happy to welcome Grace to our team in December to provide us with more administrative support.

" I live with my husband and three children in Liverpool. I am a Christian, love travelling, meeting with people and learning new things. "

She is certainly learning lots of new things at the moment and is picking things up very quickly.

Research-Specific Training Programmes

Please note that NIHR GCP is currently provided as part of the national suite of online learning only, with some local face to face events prioritised both virtually & in the classroom.

To ensure your team are exposed to all that is offered - please ensure you (and any learners you have responsibility for) are familiar with NIHR Learn, especially the range of courses available for new starters - to be in a position to request any available training according to any training plans you may have.

Virtual & Classroom Events

are listed within the NIHR Learn local learning pages tab (centre of home page) as one NW-wide identity - CRNs North West (GM & NWC).

As a reminder, here are weblinks to current suggested plans for Research Delivery Teams Learning Plan and Principal Investigators Learning Plan, plus we have a poster of our summarised our COVID-19 research training advice & guidance

For January 2022 - please be advised that classroom events are currently on hold and under review.

If you have been allocated a place witinh this timeframe, we will be in touch with further information ASAP.

How do you support your new starters?

If you're planning to support a new starter into a research delivery team, please consider utilising the suggested learning pathway to ensure your learner is best placed to consolidate their peer/workplace learning within face to face events.

We plan for incremental learning, using 'spaced repetition', bearing in mind competency frameworks & induction phase timelines.

A recent addition to NIHR Learn - Clinical Research in Practice Settings - could be useful in helping new starters settle in if it's used prior to being asked to complete GCP.

Please also see MOOC information below.

Research Delivery Team Essentials (RDTE)* & Informed Consent (relates only to the Research Delivery workforce)

We offer a Research Delivery Team (RDT) specific learning pathway to our Partners - scheduled by the line manager, in alignment with how it is offered.

Most of the pathway can be accessed directly via NIHR Learn. This is not something the learner should be navigating in isolation - it is expected that the line manager will drive the learning plan and development of research novices, in a timely manner with staff performance & retention in mind.

RDTE is designed to underline the first 3-4 months of development & plan for the next few months ahead - and is a course that necessitates line manager nomination.
"Informed Consent" is an additional course to the consent component of RDTE, specifically for those who will seek consent - so should be undertaken after RDTE. It forms part of the Consent Training Pathway.

Nominations for Training

We need to be able to schedule these training courses according to demand and need support in advance planning from RDT line managers. Please send us a request via this google form for GM teams and this google form for NWC teams to let us know you have a new starter in post who needs to access RDTE and possibly also Informed Consent. We will then send them a welcome message and will make contact when a place for Essentials becomes available - anticipating that once we resume to a more regular schedule, this will be at the recommended time for completion.

Events & Training, Learning & Development Opportunities

GCP Consolidation sessions

The NIHR GCP Facilitator Community across the North West are now offering short, informal support sessions for those who wish to discuss any unresolved queries they may have following completion of a training programme such as GCP.

Information on how to book can be found here

January 14th meeting link - 11:00 - 11:30

January 26th meeting link - 14:00 - 14:30

NIHR Nursing and Midwifery Celebration Event -postponed

Please see Additional Workforce, Learning & Development News & Info section below

What Makes a Good Pre-doctoral Clinical Academic Fellowship (PCAF) Application?

R&D NW and NIHR are collaborating to host an online webinar and Q&A session, looking at what makes a strong PCAF application and how you can develop a competitive PCAF application of your own. This webinar is on the Thursday 13th January 2022, 9.30am - 3.30pm, on MS Teams. We have developed a webinar that will provide practical advice and support with a view to helping you to develop a PCAF application prior to the application window opening at the end of January 2022.

New Learning Resources

Do you need to complete or review SoECATs (Schedule of Events Cost Attribution Template)?

We have added a resource to NIHR LEARN in our Locally Delivered Learning Pages to support you with this which includes useful reference documents, ACoRD attribution training, and 'how-to' videos. Please note that the SoECAT will be transferring to an online version soon, and so the site is still under construction pending details relating to this. If you feel there are any area's missing, do let us know and we can review future content.

NIHR Learn Insights

How do we help foster diversity and inclusion within research?

NIHR Learn Insights is a CPD resource with new instalments every two months and the most recent edition looks at the importance of a diverse and inclusive approach to research.

We are pleased to welcome Dr Shamaila Anwar, Project Lead - Medical Directorate, CRN National Coordinating Centre (CRNCC) and Dr. Esther Mukuka, NIHR Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), as our guest editors for the month.

In this instalment, we look at the importance of creating and maintaining workplace diversity. You will also learn how we can all become better allies and find out about some of the important work taking place across the network to improve inclusion for underserved communities

We will also provide a spotlight on a programme of learning taking place in Yorkshire and the Humber, which has been designed to address local needs and enhance the learning of our Clinical Research Delivery workforce.

Did you know that NIHR Learn Insights is mobile friendly? Grab a cuppa and take a moment.

Additional Workforce, Learning & Development News & Info

End of year messages to Research Nurses and Midwives

NIHR Director of Nursing and Midwifery, Ruth Endacott, wishes to thank all Research Nurses and Midwives for their incredible work this year.

Along with her senior peers, she offers her thanks to all the nurses and midwives who have continued to go above and beyond this year, and looks forward to an exciting year ahead.

NHS Health Education England – Workforce Planning and Leadership Development Programme

The WHO and HEE are working in collaboration to develop the next generation of Human Resources for Health (HRH) system leaders, creating a lasting impact and strengthening health systems globally.

This development programme will be delivered in a series of four seminars and action learning sets, presented by leaders in the field of workforce planning. You can listen back to the recording of the first seminar – Seminar One – An introduction to systemic workforce planning. All seminars can be accessed by everyone, all you need to do is register.

What is an Integrated Care System (ICS)?

ICS's are new partnerships between the organisations that meet health and care needs across an area, to coordinate services and to plan in a way that improves population health and reduces inequalities between different groups. They will be passed into legislation in April 2022.

The Social Care Institute for Excellence is currently running a webinar series covering a number of topics related to the introduction of ICS's and the benefits they will bring. You can listen back to previous webinars and register for the upcoming sessions too.

Have you thought about joining the CRP Accredited Register?

We know that for CRPs, joining the directory or applying to join the register can be a really helpful step. So with that in mind, we have created a NW CRP webpage, with the aim to provide you with some fantastic resources to help your continued professional development, as well as supporting with the actual application process itself.

You can register to join a mailing list, meet your Engagement Manager: CRP Registration as well as enhance your reflection skills.

Keep an eye out over the coming weeks and months for more resources and events being added to the page.

Screenshot of CRP webpage including photo of a CRP sat in front of a screen

NWC Lead Research Practitioner Forum

We have recently created a web page which will act as a central repository for all CRN North West Coast Lead Research Practitioner Forum information.

The site will house the terms of reference for this group, previous meetings' minutes along with other useful resources. It's still in the early stages at the moment, but if you are a member of this group, make sure you bookmark the link and keep an ear out for more info in the coming weeks.

Embedding Research in NHS Care and Wider Health Services - A Guide

This updated guide aims to provide some 'tools' to help you support NHS colleagues to further embed research activity in their organisations for patient benefit at the frontline.

You will find information that should support you in interacting with non research colleagues in your care settings. This might be facts and figures, messaging, reports, new strategic work or examples of approaches to research engagement, including simple key messages that you could use

Making research matter Chief Nursing Officer for England’s strategic plan for research

Making research matter Chief Nursing Officer for England’s strategic plan for research was launched on 22 November 2021. NIHR Nursing & Midwifery have been involved in the development of the Plan and Ruth Endacott contributed a Foreword. This is the first ever Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) Research Plan and brings together ambitions for nurses delivering, supporting, participating in and leading research. An Implementation Plan will be launched in Spring 2022. NIHR Nursing & Midwifery are also involved in the development of this plan.

Contact Lucy Ainsworth, Programme Officer of Nursing and Midwifery (lucy.ainsworth@nihr.ac.uk).

Nurse checking equipment in an Emergency Room

Are you a Research Nurse within an Emergency Department?

A small group of Emergency Department Research Nurses are whether there could be national level interest in holding a one day conference aimed specifically at Research Nurses who work on clinical research in the ED.

If you’re a research nurse working in ED, please complete this survey

National & Regional Workforce Planning Resources

If you are interested in workforce planning; additional workforce; volunteer deployment; skill mix; this webpage holds links to National & Regional Resources.

Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs)

Both NIHR MOOCs are scheduled to repeat over the coming weeks/months:

For NHS staff, patients and public: "What is Health Research?" Explore the world of health research and the role volunteers play in transforming treatments and improving health care.

For research novices: "Improving Healthcare through Clinical Research". In this free online course, find out how medical treatments are discovered, tested and evaluated to improve healthcare for all.

As GCP face to face is not available widely at present, this could be well placed to ensure continuity of formal learning

for those who are new to research.

Introduction to Randomised Controlled Trials - University of Birmingham

Discover the importance of trials in evidence-based medicine and learn about the trial lifecycle from conception to publication. To find out more - weblink here.

With all FutureLearn MOOCs, please remember that your do not have to purchase a certificate, you can 'screenshot' your progress and/or your completion page.

Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products

The Advanced Therapy Treatment Centre (ATTC) network have developed a new e-learning programme in collaboration with e-learning for Healthcare. Please share with your networks/communities as appropriate.

This series of eLearning sessions is designed to give the learner a core understanding of advanced therapies, how they function in the body, and the steps involved in delivering these medicines. The modules take the learner from the basics of cell and gene therapy, through to a more in-depth look at products currently being delivered through both commissioned treatments and clinical trials.

New Learning Resource on NIHR Learn: Introduction to GCP - IMP management module

The Introduction to GCP - IMP Management module is now available on NIHR Learn. This specialised Good Clinical Practice (GCP) module explores Investigational Medicinal Product (IMP) management within the context of clinical trials conducted in the NHS.

It is a specialist module for the Introduction to Good Clinical Practice (GCP) for those who have delegated responsibility (freedom to act) for IMP management for a clinical trial.

It meets a training need for GCP IMP management outside of a pharmacy setting and by non pharmacy professionals while continuing to ensure Pharmacy staff receive the relevant training they need to be GCP compliant.

Primary Care

There is a Research and Quality Improvement Learning Community for Primary Care on NIHR Learn, as well as a new module which is made up of a series of videos entitled Getting into Research: Primary Care, taken from a conversation between CRN GM and the GP Excellence programme.

Associate PI

The Associate PI scheme recently launched a new website which contains all of the details you need to know about the programme, including what to expect, how to apply, and where to reach out for further information.

Did you know you can follow us on Twitter?

We have a North-West Workforce Learning and Development Twitter account where we share some of the great work going on across our region.

Follow us, tag us when you have something you'd like us to shout about and you never know what opportunities and contacts you might come across along the way!

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