Success stories

In 2023, we awarded 110 education grants to nursing and midwifery professionals across the UK. These grants can make a real difference, not only to your development, but also to the health and wellbeing of the public, and the care they receive.

Hear from previous grant recipients and find out more about what they have achieved:

Amelia, Clinical Nurse Specialist

Amelia is a clinical nurse specialist in prostate cancer in London.

Pursuing her dreams

Amelia has a psychology degree and a background in the cosmetics industry but know she always wanted to become a nurse. Following her own health struggles, she was inspired to pursue her nursing dreams and was keen to give something back. In 2013, Amelia retrained as a nurse and has worked in a variety of roles since.

Funding

Amelia received an RCN Foundation education grant to undertake a prostate cancer academy course for advanced practitioners. She found the course helped her achieve a much more in depth understanding of the numerous prostate cancer treatment pathways, including pathways for localised patients as well as the patients she cares for who have metastatic disease.

The course also taught Amelia the importance of considering patients psycho-social wellbeing and considering their background, heritage and sexual identity. As a result, Amelia was able to apply this learning directly to her own trust, saying “The location of my trust, and the prevalence of prostate cancer within the black community, the majority of our patients with prostate cancer are black men. Within the black community there is often stigma around the treatment and diagnosis of prostate cancer due to cultural beliefs and understandable mistrust in the healthcare system.” Within her trust, Amelia was integral in setting up the ‘Brother to Brother, Man to Man’ peer support group which is specifically for black men with prostate cancer, helping them to access to the information and resources they need.

Impact

Amelia found the course allowed her to reflect on the importance of appropriately tailoring information to the communities she cares for, as well as allowing patients adequate time to make decisions if they wish to discuss treatment with their family, pastor, community or other health care professionals. Similarly, she found it is paramount to consider tech poverty and language barriers when providing information to patients, especially in regard to addressing health inequalities.

In her own words, Amelia said: “Patient education and ensuring proper understanding is so important. We need to empower patients to take charge of their health and make sure patients feel they can take ownership of their bodies rather than bombarding them with information in a way that is difficult for them to relate to. The course helped reinforce my beliefs about this and has made me even more keen to practice holistically to help tackle health inequality and continue providing the care our patients deserve.”

Dr Ben Bowers

Ben is a clinical academic community nurse, specialising in palliative and end-of-life care. He is a Wellcome post-doctoral research fellow with the University of Cambridge and a practicing Honorary Nurse Consultant in Palliative Care. Ben now leads an interdisciplinary programme of research with the University of Cambridge.

About Ben

In 2023, Ben featured on the Nursing Times impact list of 75 nurses and midwives who have contributed significantly to the NHS.

Ben is passionate about supporting community nurses to use research to enhance person-centred care. He is also keen to advocate for patients and informal caregivers by improving their knowledge on key end-of-life care intervention. Through innovative end-of-life research, he has improved patient and family care – something which has been a goal of his for a very long time.

Our support

Ben has been awarded three RCN Foundation education grants which have supported his PhD research and the production and dissemination of three research papers.

Through this research, he has presented his work at conferences and had his work published in journals such as the British Medical Journal, Palliative Medicine, Nursing Older People, Cancer Nursing Practice, Primary Health Care and Nursing Standard (to name a few!).

On receiving the grants, Ben states that carrying out his research has “has improved my skills in undertaking sensitive research interviews and analysing multi-voice views and experiences of dying care. They have helped me in becoming a more skilled nurse researcher and has added to my patient advocacy skills. Being able to do the research has really helped my confidence and has laid the groundwork for getting my own research funding in the future.”

Published work

Ben’s most recent research paper has just been published and is available to read online.

For access to Ben’s published worked, please see below:

Beth, Specialist Midwife

Beth is a Specialist Midwife for Monogenic Diabetes and has recently completed a prescribing module at the University of Surrey. This module has prepared Beth to be a safe and effective independent prescriber.

About Beth

Prior to starting the course, Beth was working as an integrated midwife, working in both community and hospital settings. Beth applied for funding from the RCN Foundation to undertake an Independent/ Supplementary Prescribing Module Course, which enabled her to become a specialist midwife for diabetes. This has subsequently led Beth to work for the South East Genomics Medicine Service Alliance (SE GMSA) as a specialist midwife for monogenic diabetes, embedding testing for monogenic diabetes within the existing gestational diabetes pathway.

The course not only prepared Beth to prescribe but also equipped her with knowledge about ethics, pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, adverse drug reaction and drug interactions.

Career development

In becoming an independent prescriber, Beth is able to give a more comprehensive level of service to pregnant women with gestational and pre-existing diabetes, preventing delay obtaining medication when doctors are unavailable. She has found that she can also give a more holistic level of service, in assessing diagnosing and treating conditions as they arise in pregnancy.

Significance

After completing the course, Beth has found that being able to prescribe has improved her ability to assess what my patients needs in a timely and efficient manner. She feels the service for her patients has improved, preventing delays in treatment, whilst also relieving some of the pressure on her colleagues. In her own words, "without the grant, I would not have been able to advance my career and become a specialist midwife. It has been the catalysis to further my career and has inspired me to hopefully complete a masters in the future."

Jodi, Forensic Nurse Examiner

Jodi is a Forensic Nurse Examiner, working in a Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) in Nottingham. She qualified as a nurse after returning to university as a mature student and is a busy mum to three boys.

Career

Jodi started her career working in an Emergency Department (ED), following in the footsteps of her Granny, who worked in the same ED 20 years earlier. Jodi quickly discovered that she was passionate about advocating for patients. She worked on an improvement project, looking at how the ED experience could be improved for patients presenting with mental health needs. After completing secondments as Safeguarding and Domestic Violence Specialist Nurse, Jodi secured her role as Forensic Nurse Examiner at a SARC. Jodi says, ‘I initially wanted to become a Forensic Nurse Examiner working within sexual offences because of my passion for advocating for, and supporting those who, for one reason or another, didn't have their voice’.

Course

With funding from the RCN Foundation, Jodi completed a Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) training course. Through this course, Jodi learnt how to support young people in building healthy relationships, developed confidence in talking openly and sensitively about sexual health issues, and learnt ways to discuss the impact of technology on relationships with young people. Jodi can now apply the latest RSE guidance in her practice, ensuring that patients receive a thoroughly holistic experience. If patients require further support and education, Jodi can signpost them to the appropriate service.

Impact

This experience has led Jodi and her team to be able to support wider external agencies such as local universities and colleges with their own education packages, using the team’s unique knowledge of sexual offences and applying their skills in a manner that is relevant and in-keeping with recommended RSE guidance.

Jodi says, "without the bursary, I would have not been able to undertake the course. The course has greatly improved my knowledge of ways to engage people in those important yet uncomfortable conversations. Undertaking the course has increased my passion to support education of the public in relation to RSE." As well as allowing Jodi to provide the best care to patients, the course has also assisted Jodi’s professional development; "I believe this additional qualification supported my promotion to SARC manager."

Jodi enjoys working in a niche area of nursing and she finds it a privilege to work with clients, seeing the immense difference the service makes to patients. Jodi is passionate about RSE education, for both her patients and the wider public. To share her knowledge with people working with or supporting young people, Jodi runs a social media account - give her a follow to learn more!

Lainie, Hepatology Nurse Specialist and PhD student

In 2023, we awarded Lainie, a Hepatology Nurse Specialist based in Oxfordshire, a grant to study for a PhD. In her role, Lainie is part of a community team that organises and conducts Hepatitis C testing and treatment clinics to support the NHS England Hepatitis C elimination plan.

Study

During her studies, Lainie conducted research into student nurse’s attitudes towards drug dependency and went on to complete an MSc in Contemporary Drug and Alcohol Studies. Lainie is passionate about nurse-led research, arguing that it can "have a significant impact on areas such as patient experiences, outcomes, service delivery, recruitment, retention, and many more." Lainie’s PhD proposal stemmed from a desire to better support the needs of hepatology patients, with her research exploring the experiences of homeless individuals requiring hepatology follow-up, providing valuable insights to improve access and services for this marginalised population.

Receiving a grant

Applying for a PhD and securing funding was a challenge, however, Lainie completed training courses to expand her knowledge and worked hard to build professional networks. After receiving an RCN Foundation grant, Lainie said "I was thrilled when I received the news that I had been successful. It relieved the financial stress I was starting to experience and meant I could start the course knowing that I had the fees covered. I just wish I had known about the RCN Foundation grant before, as it has proved to be a fantastic resource to allow me to start my PhD journey without the financial burden."

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