Time: 12.00pm - 1.00pm
Price: free
Speaker(s): Professor Vari Drennan, Professor Claire Thurgate, Dr Mary Halter, Dr Lihua Wu and Dr Elkan Alkan

Addressing the retention of community nurses in England: a mixed methods study of strategies, impact, and outcomes, by Professor Vari Drennan, Professor Claire Thurgate, Dr Mary Halter,  Dr Lihua Wu and Dr Elkan Alkan

The National Health Service (NHS) has major problems in meeting the needs of patients and recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.  There are plans that more care will be provided outside of hospitals. For example, there will be more virtual wards in the community. These plans rely on having enough nurses working in the community and visiting patients in their own homes. Community and district nursing services in England often have problems in keeping their staff. This is a particular issue in cities and for adult community nursing services. This presentation reports on a study, funded by The General Nursing Council Trust, which aims to identify successful ways of preventing community nurses for adults leaving their jobs and organisations.  We will discuss our three-phase study and present findings from a scoping review, survey and interviews with nurses in district and community nursing services in England.

Bio of Professor Drennan

Professor Drennan has led a programme of research into questions of adapting , strengthening and supporting health care workforces over the past twenty years . Vari joined the academic department of primary care at University College London, after working as a senior NHS community health service manager in inner London. At UCL she started a programme of research on health and social care workforce and evaluations of new and changing professional roles such as non-medical prescribing.  On moving to the Joint Faculty of Health & Social Care Sciences at Kingston University and St. George's University of London she built on the new roles research programme and led National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) funded studies investigating the contribution of physician associates to primary and secondary care.  She has led studies on strategies for retaining health professionals, introducing advanced practice roles and understanding global nursing shortages. She is currently co-lead for a NIHR funded study investigating the impact of including non-medical practitioners into the staffing of emergency departments  as well as leading a study on retention strategies for home visiting nurses.   More details of her work are available here Professor Vari M Drennan MBE - Academic profiles - Kingston University London

For further information about this event:

Contact: Nathalie Leung
Email: y.k.leung@kingston.ac.uk