PHA's HSC R&D monies support RCN winners

Funding from the Public Health Agency’s (PHA) HSC R&D Division has supported research carried out by the winner of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Northern Ireland 2015 Nurse of the Year Award and the Nursing Research Award.

In its nineteenth year, the RCN awards took place at the Culloden Hotel, Holywood on 21 May 2015.

Overall winner, Cherith Semple, is employed as a Macmillan cancer nurse specialist at the South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust. Cherith’s HSC R&D Division-funded Doctoral Fellowship explored factors associated with psychosocial dysfunction in patients with head and neck cancer and the effectiveness of cognitive behavioural interventions.

In addition to her Doctoral Fellowship, Cherith has undertaken a Cochrane Fellowship funded by HSC R&D Division. She is also currently helping to lead on a Knowledge Exchange Award funded by the HSC R&D Division which will use findings from research to provide staff with knowledge and awareness of how to help improve adjustment for children whose parents have cancer. 

Dr Carmel Kelly, South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust and Queen’s University Belfast, won the Nursing Research Award through her work with HIV positive women, healthcare professionals and a professional production team, to produce an innovative eLearning resource aimed at staff and managers from midwifery, sexual health and education.

The resource, entitled “HIV and Pregnancy – Prepared to Care” was funded through an HSC R&D Division Knowledge Transfer Award. This incorporates key medical information, with findings from research and brings to life patient and partner experiences and what it means for nurses, midwives and doctors to be prepared to care for couples affected by HIV.

Speaking after the awards, Dr Janice Bailie, PHA Assistant Director, Research & Development Division, said: “We are delighted to have been able to support Cherith and Carmel in these important pieces of research. Cherith’s work successfully integrated her research findings with education and put these into practice to help improve the care of patients and their families, creating a patient-led follow-up service and reducing the requirement for a routine appointment follow-up service.

“Carmel’s important work on the development of the eLearning resource, HIV and pregnancy: prepared to care, is now promoted as part of continuing professional development for nursing, midwifery and medical staff across all five HSC trusts in Northern Ireland and has been endorsed and promoted by the Royal College of Midwives and the National HIV Nurses Association, as well as having been accessed online from 56 countries around the world.”