Nursing Innovation and Workforce Advancement Research Projects

Dr Cherith Semple from School of Nursing and Paramedic Science in Ulster University (UU) and Dr Carla O’Neill from the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Systems in UCD were awarded funding through the North-South Research Programme for this joint collaborate project on Family Centred Cancer Care. The aim of the project is to; Plan, develop and evaluate a novel evidence-based and theory-driven eLearning resource to equip health and social care professionals to communicate with, and support families with dependent children, when a parent is at end of life from cancer.

The North-South Research Programme is a collaborative scheme funded through the Government’s Shared Island Fund. It is administered by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) on behalf of the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science.

• Research Project Page

The EU4Health ‘DDS-MAP’ project will develop new digital training provision for healthcare professionals in the EU. The project aims to strengthen health systems and support the digital transformation of healthcare by understanding the digital learning needs of healthcare professionals and then developing innovative learning programmes that respond to these needs.

• Research Project Page

The relationship between safe nurse staffing and skill-mix and patient, staff and organisational outcomes has been established in a number of studies and reports. Higher levels of staffing and care delivered by a higher proportion of registered nurses is associated with decreased levels of mortality and patients experiencing adverse events such as pressure sores, falls and hospital-acquired infections. Better nurse staffing is also associated with decreased levels of burnout and increased job satisfaction amongst nursing staff as well as reduced levels of missed care and an enhanced clinical environment. Optimal levels of nurse staffing are also associated with enhanced recruitment and reduced staff turnover. The challenge, however, is to identify staffing levels that are safe and effective. 

This programme of research, funded by the Health Research Board and the Department of Health, identifies, develops, implements and tests models of safe nurse staffing in a variety of settings. The outputs from this research are impacting on Government policy and leading to changes in how nurse staffing levels are calculated in a variety of healthcare settings.

• Research Project Page