Your web browser is outdated and may be insecure

The RCN recommends using an updated browser such as Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome

RCN Foundation 15th Anniversary logo featuring a large star with the number 15 inside, smaller stars surrounding it, and the tagline '15 years of strengthening nursing and midwifery and advancing care'. Make a Donation

Championing adult social care nursing

Claire Pryor, RCN Foundation Chair in Adult Social Care Nursing, reflects on her first year in post to mark #Red4Research Day

What a year! In July 2024 the RCN Foundation and University of Salford came together in an ambitious partnership to celebrate, research and advance nursing in adult social care. I was fortunate to be appointed as the first Professor in Adult Social Care, working with Dr Siobhan Kelly (Research Fellow), Professor Vanessa Heaslip (Professor in Nursing and healthcare and equity), Dr Melanie Stephens (Associate Professor in Adult Nursing) and Caroline Morton (Directorate lead for Social Care Nursing).

Our work has been wide ranging, focussed locally, regionally, nationally and internationally to raise the profile of nursing in adult social care nursing. An essential part of this work is expanding the evidence base through research. Research - no matter how big or small - is critical to support and underpin evidence-based nursing practice and drive innovation and change.

Highlights

  • Completed a concept analysis of adult social care nursing, leading to the creation of a professional definition of adult social care nursing (currently under review)
  • A scoping review of enhanced, specialist and advanced nursing roles in care homes and charities (and are currently exploring nurse prescribing in social care)
  • Working with the NIHR to identify research priorities for adult social care nursing. This includes a range of listening events and consultations to hear what really matters to nurses in social care, where they think the gaps in research and evidence lie, and their ideas about how these gaps can be addressed. Ensuring a sound understanding where research activity should be focussed is a priority to ensure relevance, utility and impact going forward. Hearing the voice of people who work and use social care nursing services is paramount, and should always be central to research; informing, shaping and driving it forward in a direction that matters to them
  • Undertaking research exploring Registered Learning Disability Nurses’ perceptions of their registration with the NMC, as well as perceptions of the role of RNLDs on students, wider stakeholders and people with a learning disability
  • We have also spent time mobilising evidence and knowledge of the impact of interprofessional student education (IPE) in care homes so that the context of the research and practice of the IPE model is made accessible, understandable and widely usable
  • Lastly, we are commencing a review of nursing in social care settings within undergraduate nursing curriculum. This will help us understand how Universities and employers can ensure social care nursing is perceived as a dynamic, autonomous and professional nursing practice.

Over the past year, the drive for research and innovation in adult social care nursing has been genuinely inspiring. Looking ahead, there’s a real opportunity to strengthen research that puts lived experience, nursing education and equity at the centre, driving care that makes a meaningful difference in people’s lives.

Bring on year two!