{"id":1052,"date":"2018-05-10T16:28:09","date_gmt":"2018-05-10T15:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-medicine\/?p=1052"},"modified":"2018-06-14T16:22:15","modified_gmt":"2018-06-14T15:22:15","slug":"from-biology-to-bedside-my-journey-into-research-nursing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/imperial-medicine\/2018\/05\/10\/from-biology-to-bedside-my-journey-into-research-nursing\/","title":{"rendered":"From biology to bedside: my journey into research nursing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"FromIn this guest post,\u00a0Emily Ashworth shares her career path, from graduating with a nursing degree to pursuing a PhD in blast injury.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

I can\u2019t confess I always wanted to be a nurse, in fact, it was never a career path I considered.\u00a0It is safe to say my progression in nursing has never been linear\u2026<\/p>\n

I had hit a crossroads after the first year of my biology degree and realised that instead of studying a broad subject I\u2019d rather choose a more specific topic that suited me.\u00a0I thought back to what I enjoyed when I was younger and remembered an experience at the Natural History Museum; when my parents left me for hours to wander the museum while I played with the human body exhibit, which had me captivated.<\/p>\n

I had friends at university who were studying nursing, and I enjoyed listening to their stories from their placements, so there I was, the week before freshers’ week, signing up for a nursing degree.<\/p>\n

Thrown in at the deep end<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The initial lectures in anatomy and physiology, pharmacology and sociology were as I expected, but after just a handful of months, I found myself in a hospital ward doing my first placement. I was feeling unprepared. Before then I had only stepped foot in a hospital once, and that was for a day case surgery at 14 years old!\u00a0I struggled to learn the basics of hospital corners and nursing administration but quickly settled into the holistic role of a student nurse.<\/p>\n

When I graduated, during the recession, there were few jobs around for newly qualified nurses, so I began a role as dialysis nurse in Manchester rather than the A&E nurse I had always imagined myself to be.\u00a0 I made the most of the opportunity, learned lots and made good friends before moving to London and working in cardiac critical care.<\/p>\n

After two years ‘on the shop floor’, I found myself burning out and lacking enthusiasm.\u00a0 A colleague of mine had recently become a research nurse and seemed to enjoy it, so I thought I would have a go at it for a while, a break ‘out of clinical’ and into research.<\/p>\n

Starting out in research<\/h2>\n

Research nursing was not something I had heard of, but as soon as I started, I found it exciting.\u00a0I was learning specialist nursing skills in the fields of vascular and cardiology and had opportunities to study and learn even more.<\/p>\n

\"The
The author graduating with her MRes In Clinical Research<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I completed a Masters in Clinical Research<\/a> and a research study of my own, from start to finish. This involved working with patients with claudication – a condition where cramping pain in the leg is caused by exercise, typically caused by obstruction of the arteries. I talked with the patients to determine how successful the treatment had been using a qualitative methodology.<\/p>\n

Wanting to progress to the next stage I applied for a job as a senior research nurse in neurology, emergencies and trauma \u2013 back in A&E where I originally wanted to be!\u00a0 We grew our research team from enthusiasm and hard work; producing posters at conferences and publications and even got shortlisted for a ‘Nursing Times Award’.<\/p>\n

I had found my calling; I enjoyed learning the clinical trauma skills and began to integrate this role with a trauma nurse coordinator position, doing a 50:50 clinical academic split.\u00a0 I also set up LAnTERN<\/a> (London\u2019s Acute, Trauma and Emergency Research Network) for researchers like myself to learn and grow their teams as part of an NIHR<\/a> (National Institute of Health Research) Advanced Leadership Programme.<\/p>\n

During this time, I met several clinical colleagues who were military and I needed little persuasion to join the Royal Navy Reserves as a trauma nurse.\u00a0 Also, because I\u2019m a relentless workaholic, I\u2019m a pre-hospital nurse at Wembley Stadium, where I can work autonomously and improve my front-line emergency care skills.<\/p>\n

Last year, I was lucky enough to receive a funding grant from the Royal British Legion<\/a> to complete a PhD in Blast Injury, and have now somehow found myself in the Department of Bioengineering<\/a> at Imperial College London, which is pretty niche for a nurse! This incorporates all the work I have been doing over the last few years within the trauma networks and my military role, tying all my skills together under one job.<\/p>\n

What does the future hold?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Who knows! I am currently enjoying studying on weekdays and spending weekends in the field; with either the Royal Naval Reserve or practicing pre-hospital care at Wembley.\u00a0One week I could be in the blast lab simulating under-body vehicle blast or providing pre-hospital care at a football match, the next, sleeping out under the stars on Dartmoor.<\/p>\n

The most important thing I have learnt is that being a nurse does not confine me to ward work or being in a hospital for 37.5 hours a week. Instead it opens windows of opportunity and all it took was an impulsive decision to start a nursing qualification!<\/p>\n

Emily Ashworth (MRes, BNurs (Hons), RN, QARNNS RNRI) is a PhD Student at the Centre for Blast Injury Studies<\/a> at Imperial College London.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this guest post,\u00a0Emily Ashworth shares her career path, from graduating with a nursing degree to pursuing a PhD in blast injury.\u00a0 I can\u2019t confess I always wanted to be a nurse, in fact, it was never a career path I considered.\u00a0It is safe to say my progression in nursing has never been linear\u2026 I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1227,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[272486],"tags":[272487,248784,81],"class_list":["post-1052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guest-posts","tag-centre-for-blast-injury-studies","tag-nursing","tag-research"],"yoast_head":"\nFrom biology to bedside: my journey 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