In a letter to the The Times, University Alliance CEO Vanessa Wilson responds to the Times’ Health Commission.
‘Sir, The ten recommendations of The Times Health Commission are timely, necessary and sensible. Your ninth point makes the case for NHS staff to take part in research, proposing that 20 per cent of hospital consultants and other senior clinicians have 20 per cent of their time protected for research. The same should apply to nursing research, which is happening at the professional and technical universities we represent. I know of one research nurse who undertook a study of why patients were often malnourished while in hospital. Another nurse’s research project explored the normalisation of assaults on mental health nurses working in in-patient settings (many cite this as a reason for leaving their roles or the profession altogether).
The report is right to say “thought should be given to how other NHS staff could be given protected time for research”. Nurses’ research time needs to be protected too.’
Vanessa Wilson
CEO, University Alliance
Read the letter on The Times’ website here.
