Journal of Research in Nursing

With demographic trends predicting an increase in the number of older people and a reduction in the number of family carers (Royal Commission on Long Term Care, 1999), it is likely that admission to nursing homes will continue to increase. Although it might be expected that entry to a nursing home, with an anticipated reduction in 24-hour care, would result in a reduction in stress for carers, evidence to date does not support this expectation. Study findings indicate that this experience is associated with guilt, anger, despair, resentment and general psychological distress (Kellett, 1999; Ryan and Scullion, 2000a; Nolan and Dellasega, 2000; Davies, 2001). Therefore, although the physical burden of caring is relieved following nursing home placement, the emotional turmoil often continues, and is exacerbated by the circumstances surrounding the decision to end home care. Although there is evidence to suggest that, following placement, families are often expected to relinquish their dependent older relative to the bureaucracy of the institution, this is not always in the best interest of the resident, the family or the nursing home staff. This paper examines recent literature on the transition from home care to nursing home care and highlights the need for greater collaboration between families and nursing home staff.

This paper considers the position of people with dementia in care homes, and the different understandings of their predicament. There are conflicting pressures on care homes. On the one hand there are reasons to ignore dementia, but on the other there are new expectations that a reasonable quality of life is both possible and desirable for people with dementia. These expectations are informed by a view of dementia which challenges narrow medical understandings and implies a kind of care that is based on sensitive interpretations of individuals, and is able to meet a broad range of needs.

Drawing upon findings from a study of wellbeing among people with dementia in long-term care, the paper suggests that applying new understandings to care practice is a slow but worthwhile process. In a favourable care environment, people with dementia can maintain wellbeing, although staff need continuing encouragement and support, especially when residents' needs are complex. In their own way, people with dementia make efforts to hold on to the essential underpinnings of wellbeing, and these efforts need to be recognised and supported. Staff who develop a special understanding of the lived experience of dementia, together with skills to support broader needs, can make a significant difference to residents' lives. The challenge for care homes is to find ways of enabling staff to work in this way.

This paper reports ways of working and early findings from the Partnership with Care Homes Project (PCH). PCH is an extension to the ongoing CELEC Action Research Project: Care for Older People that is concerned with the development and evaluation of seven lead research and development nurses. These nurses have responsibility for improving care for older people in seven NHS trusts in North East London in line with the National Service Framework for Older People. Funded originally by CELEC (Central and East London Education Consortium), these nurses are using action research to blur the boundaries between education, practice and research. This innovative way of working has fostered closer working relationships, the cross-fertilisation of ideas and joint working between acute and primary care trusts; general and mental health services; users, carers and professionals; health and social care providers (NHS and voluntary sector), and commissioners and providers of education. The success of the action research project led to the North East London Workforce Development Confederation (CELEC's replacement), giving additional funding to extend the project into the private sector — the Partnership with Care Homes Project.

This work is ongoing and currently 25 care homes (representing more than 1,500 beds) are participating in the project, with the emphasis very firmly on partnership working to meet their education, research and practice development needs. The lessons learned from the project may lead to a new model of commissioning for both education and service delivery which is able to respond more promptly to emergent need. The purpose of this paper is to share the experience of working in this way, explore the early findings and, more importantly, celebrate some of the outcomes that are already emerging from the work.

The aim of the study was to identify how a small group of research-active clinical nurses perceived and overcame the reputed 'barriers' to carrying out research in practice. The nursing literature on research implementation tends to focus on barriers that prevent nurses engaging in research. This study takes a different approach and focuses instead on how some nurses manage to succeed despite the difficulties.

A purposive sample of 12 research-active nurses from one trust was recruited to the study. The small sample was a reflection of the comparatively small number of clinical practitioners involved in research activity. Interviews and rating scales were used to explore the practitioners' attitudes to research in general as well as barriers to research identified through earlier studies. The nurses studied did not consider the commonly perceived barriers to undertaking research to be 'barriers' - some nurses saw them as 'excuses'. The only barriers the nurses acknowledged were staffing, cost and lack of support, but they surmounted these by their determination to carry out their research studies and publish. The study suggests that the main kind of support needed by nurses who want to carry out research is that offered by facilitators, who give them confidence to carry out research and publish their findings.

The nursing professions' R&D priority-setting Initiative was established to increase the involvement of nurses, midwives and health visitors in research and development activities in the UK. A first phase of work explored the feasibility of establishing a systematic and coordinated process for identifying priorities for R&D for the nursing professions.

The second phase aims to build on the collaboration and cooperation achieved in phase one to establish a process and structure to promote a united professional voice for nursing on R&D (Scott et al., 1999). To this end, proposals were developed to establish a strategic alliance of the professional interests which would be known as the Strategic Alliance for Research in Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting. Part of the role of this alliance would be to lobby for funding for research activity in nursing.

This paper sets out to investigate the involvement of nurses with the nursing research charities and looks at ways nurses could improve their chances of obtaining funding from such sources.