Abstract
This is a high quality and important paper. A number of significant issues are raised and discussed. One important finding is the substantial number of PhD-prepared nurses within the Nordic countries working within the clinical setting. Although there is no UK comparative data available, we do know that the number in a typical university hospital are between 0–10 nurses. We also know that only 0.01% of qualified nurses in the UK currently work as a senior clinical academic. There is an agreed National target aspiring to 1% of the UK nursing workforce to be a senior clinical academic by 2030. In comparison to our medical colleagues, where the equivalent is 5%, some senior nurses say this is an ambitious target, whereas others say it is not aspirational enough. The paper stresses the importance of collaboration and networking which is fundamental to success. A further finding and recommendation relates to a need to have organisational structures, process and support to develop and more importantly value research focused nursing clinical academic roles. Within the UK, this is one of the most important and challenging obstacles we currently face. The transforming care through clinical academic roles interactive guide goes some way to assist in the stimulation and development of these roles, but more work and understanding is required.
The paper further raises a number of other interesting issues, it reports that two thirds of respondents were happy with the time split between research and practice, despite 20–50% of time only being allocated to research activity. A further issue concerns the remaining third, who were unhappy with the split. As the nurses are in relatively senior clinical positions, one might ask, why do they not use leadership skills to influence and change the proportion to an acceptable level? The role of leadership is not discussed within the paper, despite its fundamental importance. There is no point in undertaking research training unless one has the aptitude and ability to challenge and facilitate change, including one’s own job plan.
A related and important question raised in the paper, is whether research focused roles should have responsibility for the line management of others. Human resource line management responsibility is time consuming, whether this activity is the best use or indeed the best return on investment of PhD prepared nurses is not known, although one could suggest that that their time, knowledge and skills would be best utilised developing and delivering research that improves patient’s outcomes. A further unexplored issue in the paper is the important contribution of role autonomy to role satisfaction and therefore intent to stay in post and/or with the organisation. Retention of high quality healthcare staff especially nurses, is of global concern.