Career change nurses can take up clinical roles

A new pan-London campaign is aiming to attract nurses and midwives into clinical research roles in a bid to reduce the number of nurses leaving the profession.

The Keep Making a Difference campaign, launched by National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), is targeting nurses and midwives nearing retirement, returning from a career break or seeking a career change.

With one in ten nurses leaving the NHS in England each year, and with more than 33,000 nurses leaving last year alone, the campaign is intending to reach over 1,000 nurses and midwives across London and Kent Surrey and Sussex.

Susan Hamer, director of Nursing at the NIHR, said: “Reducing the number of nurses leaving the profession is a high priority for every NHS organisation. NIHR is a significant funder of staff to support clinical research across the NHS and it’s important we play an active role in supporting these efforts. Nurses and midwives are too important to lose.

“Clinical research has transformed treatment in the NHS and the care patients receive. Research roles are highly rewarding and our campaign is all about encouraging nurses and midwives to consider a research role to keep on making a difference in the field of nursing and midwifery. With more patients than ever before accessing research trials, now is the perfect time for a campaign such as this. Clinical research nursing is a new and rapidly expanding branch of nursing and with research teams in demand across the country we need more research nurses and midwives to support these teams and deliver great clinical care.”