Foundation of Nursing Studies & General Nursing Council Trust for England and Wales

Foundation of Nursing Studies & General Nursing Council Trust for England and Wales

‘Patients First’

Supporting Nurse-led Innovation in Practice: A Programme of Support for Clinically Based Nurse-led Teams

Application Pack2016

Introduction to the programme

FoNS1 believes that all patients2 should experience care that is safe, effective and compassionate. Nurses, midwives and health visitors3, as direct care givers, have a key role in identifying, with patients, potential areas for improvement. FoNS’ active and ongoing partnership with the Burdett Trust for Nursing4has enabled the development of the Patients First Programme to help clinically based nurses, midwives and health visitors to lead local innovations that will develop nurses,nursing and healthcare practice to improve patient care in any health and social care setting across the UK.

The values of the programme include:

  • Meaningful patient engagement
  • Locally focussed frontline care
  • Innovative and creative approaches

Over the past sevenyears, 80 nurses-led teams and numerous patients and carers have experienced the benefit of Patients First. At a time when the quality of healthcare and nursing practice is under tremendous scrutiny, Patients First offers teams a fantastic opportunity to show how nurses, midwives and health visitors are leading innovation and championing a practice culture where care is the best it can be.

Over a period of 18 months starting November 2016, Patients First will provide support and facilitation to clinically based teams to help them to explore current practice, develop and implement an innovation plan and evaluate outcomes for patients and practice. This will include:

  • A dedicated experienced Practice Development Facilitatorgiving direct support in the workplace and via telephone/email
  • Six full day learning and development workshops that will bring together the nurse-led teams to explore and enable the development of effective strategies for changing practice and provide opportunities for networking and sharing
  • Full access to the FoNS Centre for Nursing Innovation
  • Support with report writing,publishing and active dissemination
  • A bursary of up to £5000
  • Possible accreditation at Level 7, 30 credits,on completion of a reflective assignment through the Canterbury Christ Church University (successful applicants who are interested in this should contact FoNS for further information)

Overview of timings of programme

November 2016- September 2017 / October 2017- June 2018 / June 2017- onwards
  • Schedule a visit from the FoNS Practice Development Facilitator prior to the first workshop
  • Attend workshop days Dec, March, May, Sept
  • Organise regular facilitation visits (every 6-8 weeks)
  • Start to work on project
  • Gather evidence and data on project activities for project report (on-going)
  • Record and spend bursary
/
  • Continue working on project
  • Continue evaluation activities
  • Start to plan project report
  • Develop project evaluation report or alternative
  • Facilitation visits as needed
  • Present project and report at celebration workshop– June 2018
  • Contribute to programme evaluation via reports, surveys and bursary expenditure
/
  • Publish
  • Present at conferences
  • Become a FoNS Ambassador and promote an innovation network in your locality

Who should apply?

FoNS is looking for clinically based nurses and nurse-led teams who have identified,in conjunction with patients,an aspect of the care or service that needs to be improved. This includes midwives, health visitors and any other specialist nurses in any health or social care setting.

We are not seeking ‘perfect’ proposals or definitive plans, as the programme will offer support to develop, implement and evaluate effective action plans. Instead, we are looking for applicants who can demonstrate the formation of some initial ideas following review of evidence from patient experience and a commitment to developing new knowledge and understanding about practice and working in the ways outlined below:

  • Developing a greater understanding of practice issues by using a variety of approaches and evidence to inform and evaluate the development of practice and improvement of care. These could include:
  • Focus/discussion groups with staff and patients
  • Patient and staff interviews/stories
  • Observation of care
  • Experienced based design tools
  • Documentation review
  • Co-design tools
  • Culture and context questionnaires, leadership style questionnaires etc.
  • Working in ways that enable the inclusion and participation of patients and other key stakeholders in all aspects of the project
  • Learning in and from practice through critical reflection
  • Developing skills as a facilitator
  • Using a systematic approach to development and improvement
  • Achieving attitudinal and culture changes
  • Improvement in clinical outcomes

Applicants must be based in clinical practice (in any health or social care setting) and it is anticipated that the work with FoNS will run over a period of 18 months, starting in November 2016.

Applicants should ensure that they have the full support of theirDirector of Nursing and line management, as they will need time out of practice to lead and facilitate activities relating to the proposed innovation and to attend all six workshop days. It is strongly advised that applicants meet with their Director of Nursing (or equivalent) at an early stage to discuss the project, ensure their support for the programme and to secure a signature for the application.

General terms and conditions for successful applicants

Successful applicants and the Director of Nursing (or equivalent) will be expected to sign a ‘Terms and Conditions’ document accepting the following conditions of the programme:

  • Ensure a ‘ring fenced’ account is set up and ensure that the bursary is used only for the purposes agreed in relation to the programme
  • Attend all six workshop days and participate in ongoing networking and information sharing activities
  • Work actively to arrange appointments with the FoNS Practice Development Facilitator to visit your workplace on a regular basisand have time with you and your team to review progress and development
  • Submit a six-monthly progress report on activities, outcomes and use of the bursary
  • Allow FoNS to publicise your work in newsletters, the annual report, the virtual Centre for Nursing Innovation etc.
  • Be actively involved with FoNS in the wider dissemination of your work for example, information sharing and conference presentations
  • Acknowledge the support from FoNS with any publications/materials produced as a result of taking part in the programme, the following wording is suggested: "...supported by the Patients First Programme (a partnership between FoNS and the Burdett Trust for Nursing)” and use FoNS and Burdett Trust for Nursing logos on presentations and posters
  • Submit a detailed final evaluation and presentation to FoNS at the celebration workshop at the end of the programme in June 2018. Completed, satisfactory evaluations will be placed in the Centre for Nursing Innovation Library to enable wide access and be published and shared as part of FoNS dissemination and publications
  • When contacted, to participate in any review/evaluation undertaken by FoNS or appointed external evaluators to assess the longer-term outcomes of FoNS in supporting innovation and improvement in nursing and healthcare

Footnotes on Introduction:

  1. The ultimate purpose of the Foundation of Nursing Studies (FoNS) is to improve patient care. FoNS aims to achieve this by enabling and supporting nurses and nurse led teams working in any health or social care setting UK-wide to develop themselves and their practice.

FoNS has supported teams to:

  • Achieve clinical outcomes
  • Overcome workplace related barriers to new ways of working
  • Source and evaluate evidence to support new ways of working
  • Enable collaboration and participation of both patients and staff
  • Develop facilitation skills to enable new ways of working
  1. The term ‘patient’ is used to refer to all those people who experience nursing and healthcare
  2. The terms ‘nurse(s)’ and ‘nursing’ are used generically and includes midwives/midwifery, health visitors/visiting and other specialist community nurses/nursing
  3. The Burdett Trust for Nursing is an independent charitable Trust named after Sir Henry Burdett KCB, the founder of the Royal National Pension Fund for Nurses (RNPFN). The Trust was set up in recognition of the foundation, philosophy and structure of the RNPFN. Nurses, midwives, health visitors and the allied health professions make up the majority of the healthcare workforce and play a pivotal role in direct care to patients. The Trust targets its grants at projects that are nurse-led, using its funds to empower nurses and make significant improvements to the patient care environment. For further information visit:

Patients First: Supporting Nurse-led Innovations in Practice

Guidelines– Please read carefully

How to apply checklist

Essential

Read the Introduction to the programme (above) / □
Contact FoNS to arrange an informal discussion about your ideas/proposal. This ensures that, in principle, your idea/proposal fits with the focus of the programme and provides an opportunity for you to discuss the support and facilitation that is available from FoNS and how this can be tailored to meet the individual needs of applicants. To arrange an informal discussion telephone or email: Jo Odell, Practice Development Facilitator
Tel: 020 7307 2857
Email: / □
Contact your Director of Nursing (or equivalent). It is a requirement of this programme that the Director of Nursing signs to support your application and provides a supporting statement / □
Contact your matron or line manager to discuss supportfor the project (you will need time out of practice for the workshops in London and for meetings and visits etc) / □
Contact your finance department to ask about setting up a ring-fenced account for the bursary and to explore costings (eg back fill costs) / □
Complete the application forms parts 1-3 deleting the introduction and notes. You will need to submit electronically or by post. Whatever means of submission, the form needs to be signed by the applicant and Director of Nursing / □

Desirable

Visit the FoNS website to look at current projects and project reports (search using the term ‘Burdett’) will give your application a better sense of what is involved in the Patients First Programme and an idea of the type of innovations FoNS has supported / □
Contact existing teams. Teams with the same patient group or in the same geographical location will be able to give you an idea of what is involved / □
Read the ‘Frequently asked Questions’ document on our website / □
Look at some of our suggested supportive reading and resources (see below) / □

Dewing, J., McCormack, B. and Titchen, A. (2014) Practice Development Workbook for Nursing, Health and Social Care Teams. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell.

INVOLVE Resources that promotes public involvement in NHS research and development:

King’s Fun (2013) Experience Based Design Toolkit. Available at:

Manley, K., McCormack, B. and Wilson, V. (Eds.) (2008) International Practice Development in Nursing and Healthcare. London: WileyBlackwell.

McCormack, B., Dewar, B., Wright, J., et al. (2006) A Realist Synthesis of Evidence Relating to Practice Development: Final Report to NHS Education for Scotland and NHS Quality Improvement Scotland.

McCormack,B. and McCance, T. (2010) Person Centred Nursing Theory and Practice. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

NHS Improvement provides a variety of resources to support innovation and change:

O’Neal, H. and Manley, K. (2007) Action planning: making change happen in clinical practice. Nursing Standard. Vol. 21. No. 35. pp 35-39.

Rycroft-Malone J. et al. (2002) Getting evidence into practice: ingredients for change. Nursing Standard. Vol. 16. No. 37. pp 38-43.

Sanders, K., Odell, J. and Webster, J. (2013) Learning to be a practice developer. Chp 2 in McCormack,B., Manley, K. and Titchen, A. (2013) (Eds.)Practice Development in Nursing and Healthcare. Second Edition. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing. pp 18-44.

Scott, A. (2013) Don’t fix– facilitate: the role of reflection in successful change processes. International Practice Development Journal. Vol. 3. No. 1.Available at:

Shaw, T. (2012) Unravelling the consequence of practice development: an exploration of the experience of healthcare practitioner. International Practice Development Journal. Vol. 2. No. 2. Available at:

Bursary guidelines

To support innovation activities, teams will have access to a bursary. Use of the bursary will need to be approved by the programme Practice Development Facilitator and any monies transferred will need to be placed in a ring-fenced account. In the past, bursaries have been used in a variety of ways, for example to:

  • Pay for travel and accommodation for the London workshops
  • Buy time-out of practice for the team and other staff as appropriate
  • Fund rooms and refreshments for meetings
  • Support the involvement of service users e.g. travel costs
  • Buy in external knowledge, skills and support e.g. academic support with evaluation
  • Attendance at a conference to share findings of the project

The followingwill not be funded:

  • Training and equipment: whilst we recognise there is a need to provide funding for education and training, the purchase of equipment and/or the development of resources, there is a significant body of evidence to suggest that these factors alone often do not impact on practice
  • Travel or study grants and attendances at workshops, conferences and seminars not connected with the project
  • Course fees e.g. Bachelor, Master and Doctoral studies

When and where to submit your application

Your fully completed and signed (electronic signatures will be accepted) application must be received by 5pm on the 7th September 2016. Please note invited candidates should be available for telephone interviews on either the 27th or 28th September 2016.

Please send by post or email to:

Debbie Warren

Foundation of Nursing Studies

11-13 Cavendish Square

London

W1G OAN

Please note: Only one copy of the application form (i.e. Part 1, 2 and 3) is required.

After submitting your application

Receipt of your application will be acknowledged by email usually within 48 hours. All the applications will be reviewed and selected candidates will be invited for telephone interviews on either the 27th or 28thSeptember 2016. All applicants will then be contacted by email to inform them of the outcome of the review process (usually within 28 days of the closing date). If unsuccessful, there will be opportunity for you to receive feedback on the reason why.

Successful applicants

Successful applicants must be able to commence the programme on 1st November 2016. They will be contacted by a FoNS Practice Development Facilitator to arrange a suitable time to discuss:

  • The first visit of the FoNS Practice Development Facilitator to the workplace, prior to the December workshop
  • Their support and facilitation needs
  • An appropriate plan of involvement with FoNS
  • The workshop programme (the dates of the initial workshops will be 7th and 8thDecember 2016, please make a note of these and keep available. Further workshops will be one day in March, May and October 2017, final day May/June 2018)
  • The general terms and conditions of support and funding including communication, reporting and dissemination
  • Bursary arrangements

Patients First: Supporting Nurse-led Innovations in Practice

Application Pack Part 1 – Contact Details

NB. It is essential that all sections in Part 1 are completed in full

This is a Word document. You can save it to your computer by choosing “save as” from your file options and selecting an appropriate place to save it that makes sense to you. You can use any name to save it e.g. ‘FoNS proposal’. Please delete the details on pages 1-7.As you complete the contact details and proposal, the spaces within the tables will expand to accommodate your text.

  1. Working title for the innovation:

2a. Name & job title of lead applicant(s)/facilitator(s):
2b. Name(s) & job title(s) of co-applicant(s)/team member(s):
  1. Signature(s):

  1. Contact details (give us as much detail as you can):
Name of the health or social care organisation:
Full Postal Address:
Postcode:
Telephone:
Email:
  1. Name of person approving/supporting application for example: Director of Nursing/Chief Nurse/Care Manager:

  1. Signature:

  1. Supporting statement from person approving application:

  1. Contact details:
Address:
Postcode:
Telephone:
Email:
  1. FoNS sends out information by email about our programmes of support,relevant reports and articles, nursing awards, conferences and other networking opportunities etc. in a once weekly news alert
If you do NOT want to receive any other information from the Foundation of Nursing Studies please tick here □
  1. Data protection act: FoNS complies with the 1998 Data Protection Act. When you send us this form, these details will be held on our computer database. We need to hold your details so we can provide our services to you. Occasionally we may give your details to other nursing related organisations,so they can send you information relevant to nursing.
If you do NOT want to receive other information from other nursing organisations please tick here □
  1. How did you find out about the Patients First programme?

Patients First: Supporting Nurse-led Innovations in Practice

Application Pack Part 2 – Workplace Profile

NB. Please complete all sections of Part 2. As with Part 1, the boxes will expand as you type.

Please describe your workplace (e.g.ward, unit, surgery, care home etc.) - this should include core business, staffing levels and vacancies, team skill mix, length of stay and any other significant or relevant information:
Please describe in your own words, what the culture is like in your workplace. In other words, ‘what is it like to work in?’ ‘How are things done in your workplace (e.g. ward, clinic, unit, surgery, care home)’?
Please describe the style of leadership and team-working in your workplace:
Please describe the opportunities that there are for learning and development, particularly those that are in and from practice (e.g. clinical supervision, mentorship, reflective practice groups/opportunities, action learning):
Please describe the ways in which current clinical practice is measured and evaluated:
Please describe any previous involvement you or your team have had in practice development work and the outcomes achieved:
Please describe an activity, aspect of practice or change that has gone well and explain why:
If successful, please outline what kind of support and development needs you and your team would have:

Patients First: Supporting Nurse-led Innovations in Practice

Application Pack Part 3 – Overview of Innovation

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