Launch of new UK research centre for rheumatology nurses
Rheumatology nursing in the UK has received a major boost with the launch of a new unit in Leeds dedicated to fostering nursed-based research and improved patient care.
The Academic and Clinical Unit of Musculoskeletal Nursing (ACUMeN) will provide an academic focus in the Yorkshire region for nurses who specialise in helping people with arthritis.
ACUMeN is a collaboration between the University of Leeds' School for Healthcare Studies, Academic Unit of Musculoskeletal Disease, and Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust. This collaboration recognises that rheumatology nurses have an important role to play in improving patient care and treatment by carrying out clinical research.
Dr Jackie Hill, co-director of ACUMeN, and Arthritis Research Campaign (arc) senior lecturer in rheumatology nursing at the University of Leeds said: "Rheumatology nursing is one of the fastest growing specialties in the profession. The aim of the unit is to generate, disseminate and apply knowledge in order to improve practice and patient outcomes with rheumatology nursing. Our work will be firmly rooted in practice."
ACUMeN will also provide an opportunity for clinically-based and university-based nurses to collaborate in developing the evidence base that is needed to provide high quality patient care, as well as enhancing nurses' professional development and opening up new career pathways in research.
arc-funded research carried out by Dr Hill, who is also a rheumatology nurse practitioner, has already established that arthritis patients attending outpatient clinics run by senior nurses do better than those attending clinics run by junior doctors, and that nurses need more training to help them deal with patients with sexual problems associated with rheumatoid arthritis.
The Arthritis Research Campaign (arc) has played a leading role in developing an academic career structure for health professionals including nurses, physiotherapists and podiatrists who wish to pursue education and research interest by creating a number of lectureship and senior lectureship posts in the past two years.
Dr Hill and her colleague rheumatologist Professor Howard Bird at the University of Leeds' clinical pharmacology unit, laid many of the foundations for the expansion of the nursing role in the care of arthritis patients, and continue their research into this area.
