Find out more about some of our past and current policy influence and thought leadership projects.
Exploring The Influence of Leadership, Culture and Hierarchy on Clinical Staff Raising Concerns Leading to Patient Deterioration
NHS England (NHSE) convened the Acute Deterioration Board and a ‘Worry and Concern’ Task and Finish Group the latter a subgroup of the former. The issue of clinician, patient and family worry and concern was identified as a key priority for the Acute Deterioration Board, to understand and therefore improve the recognition and response to acute deterioration in patients in a range of settings, including learning disability, mental health, care homes and acute care settings. It aims to understand the barriers and enablers to escalate concerns that can affect outcomes for the patient.
FNF undertook a study to explore the influence of leadership, culture, and hierarchy on raising concerns relating to patient deterioration.
The study was published in the Journal of Patient Safety in July 2023.
Strengthening the Clinical Educator Workforce
This briefing reports on a project FNF undertook to answer the following questions:
1. What are the current challenges and barriers faced by clinical educators in gaining
recognition and status within the healthcare workforce?
2. What strategies can be implemented to better support the clinical educator workforce to
ensure their contributions are valued and recognised?
3. How can the professional development of clinical educators be enhanced and supported?
To answer these questions, we undertook extensive consultation, including with FNF’s Clinical Education Improvement Fellows (CEIF). The CEIF programme was a two year initiative aimed at driving innovation and quality improvement in clinical education within local systems. Funded by Health Education England South-East, the programme was delivered in partnership between FNF and Canterbury Christchurch University.
Practice learning in the nursing and midwifery professions: a review
Practice learning is a requirement for students wishing to become nurses, nursing associates and midwives in the United Kingdom. The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has commissioned the Nuffield Trust, in collaboration with FNF, to undertake some research on practice learning. The research is intended to support the NMC’s aim to recognise and acknowledge innovation, and ensure that their requirements continue to equip students with the knowledge and skills to deliver the best possible care for people across a diverse range of care settings.
The main output from the work will be an independent report, due to be completed in autumn 2024. Read more here.
Establishment of System Level Multiprofessional Student Councils
The Student Councils programme, funded by Health Education England (HEE) South East, was a two-year initiative aimed at incorporating student perspectives into the development of education and learning structures across the region. The funding was used to develop six multi- professional student councils, comprised of student nurses, trainee nursing associates, midwives, and AHPs across the six Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) in the region.
An evaluation report was published in January 2024.
Improve Access to and Quality of Preceptorship Programmes for Newly Registered Nurses
Around 1 in 5 nurses in England leave NHS hospital and community services within their first two years on the NMC register3. There is a strong consensus that the first year after registration is a particularly challenging period for nurses and midwives. Preceptorship programmes provide structured starts and aim to provide support, guidance, and development to build confidence during this transition period.
To improve preceptorship, we partnered with the Nursing Times and UNISON to gather evidence about experiences of preceptorship for Newly Registered Nurses (NRNs) to advocate for change. Our campaign in 2021-22 directly contributed to the development and/or improvement of the 4 Country National preceptorship frameworks. We repeated the survey in January 2024 to continue building the evidence for high quality preceptorship for all. This showed that encouraging progress had been made since the initial survey but more still needs to be done.
Impact of Additional Regulation on Advanced Practice on IENMS working in the UK
The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) commissioned FNF to undertake a programme of research to inform its future decision-making regarding additional regulation for advanced practice and its possible impact on internationally educated nurses and midwives (IENMs) on the NMC register. In particular, the NMC is interested in understanding what is known about advanced practice in the countries where the UK primarily recruits from and the extent to which IENMs on the NMC register use their experience of advanced practice gained outside of the UK.
The findings in the paper are primarily intended to inform planned primary data collection exercises with IENMs on the NMC register. The findings presented here and via the subsequent primary data collection activity will then be combined to form a single report to inform the wider NMC advanced practice review.
Preparing the Nursing and Midwifery Workforce to Deliver the Digital Future: Phillips Ives Review
FNF informed the direction for embedding the findings of The Phillips Ives Review in education, research and practice by bringing together all key parties who contributed to the evidence gathering and formation of the report.
Our role was to gather and collate feedback from key parties to contribute to the post
implementation strategy and associated action plan.
Read the workshop report here.
What Do You Stand For?
A new report captures the insights from nurse and midwifery leaders who FNF convened to attend the flagship WHAT DO YOU STAND FOR? Summit, sponsored by Elsevier Health.
Recognising the pivotal role of nurses and midwives in healthcare delivery, the event aimed to empower nurses and midwives to drive positive change and innovation within their respective fields.
To address the most pressing challenges in health and care, nurses and midwives will have to develop the skills to influence around key areas. These areas include: leadership development, professional voice, political acumen, and digital understanding and skills, with a focus on the role of AI tools in supporting day-to-day roles and education.
Click here to read the full report.
Learning Disability Nursing Experience and Response to COVID-19
In 2020, Health Education England (HEE) commissioned us to conduct research examining the impact of the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic on learning disability (LD) nurses and the services they provide. Through focus groups with our LD nurse alumni community, our study identified how LD nurses kept people with learning disabilities connected and safe during an intense period of social isolation.
An article reporting on the project has been published in ‘Learning Disability
Practice’. The results were presented to the HEE/ NHS E/I ‘All England Plan for Learning Disability Nursing’ steering group and informed the operational strategy for this vital workforce agenda.
