SPHERE Nursing and Midwifery Clinician Researcher Career Pathway

SPHERE Clinician Researcher Pathway Brochure (PDF, 4.2MB)

The Maridulu Budyari Gumal, the Sydney Partnership for Health, Education, Research and Enterprise (SPHERE) Nursing & Midwifery Implementation Science Academy led by Director Professor Sandy Middleton and Deputy Director Professor Caleb Ferguson brings together over 40 nurses and midwives from academia, clinical practice, and senior management to drive improved patient outcomes, healthcare delivery, and health policy changes. Focused on engagement and advocacy; research and policy; education and training, the Academy fosters mentorship, capacity building, and partnerships. The Academy is helping to bridge the translation gap between research and clinical care, offering a unique platform for nurse and midwife leaders across the greater Sydney basin to collaborate and transform healthcare.

Building research capacity and capability in nursing and midwifery

To address complex health challenges more clinician researchers are needed. In response, the Academy developed a Nursing and Midwifery Clinician Researcher Career Pathway – a newly proposed 12-year progressive training and career pathway from internships to graduate education at Honours, Masters, or Doctoral level to post-doctoral levels of research career development for nurses and midwives. The Pathway aims to transform the number of nurses and midwives within Local Health Districts with higher degrees in research. It also incorporates a Clinical Researcher Capability Framework.

At this time, the Pathway is not funded but advocacy efforts are on-going at state and national level. Some local hospitals and health districts fund individual components of the Pathway while full funding is being sought – check with your Local Health District for these opportunities.

Research

Research led by the SPHERE Nursing & Midwifery Implementation Science Academy, our research ‘Exploring the SPHERE Nursing and Midwifery Clinician Researcher Career Pathway: A qualitative study’ sought to describe the proposed Pathway in more detail. This research examined the viewpoints of nursing and midwifery service leaders and academics, yielding valuable insights into their assessment of the Pathway’s acceptability and feasibility.

In subsequent research, the investigators further explored opportunities to embed this Pathway into practice ‘Pre-implementation context and implementation approach for a nursing and midwifery clinician researcher career pathway: A qualitative study’. Despite the growing influence of nurse and midwifery clinician researchers in improving patient outcomes, enhancing care delivery and reducing healthcare costs there are limited career pathways for them in clinical practice. Using a qualitative descriptive design, data were collected from focus groups and interviews with health consumers, clinicians, and managers. The findings highlighted the Pathway was perceived by many healthcare leaders as an additional opportunity to meet organisational goals and would foster a significant cultural change, with crucial protected research time. It was perceived as a tool to empower nurses and midwives, enhance retention, and improve patient care by integrating evidence-based practice.

References

Johnson, M., et al. (2023). "Exploring the SPHERE nursing and midwifery clinician researcher career pathway: A qualitative study." Collegian30(6): 795-804. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.colegn.2023.06.002

Johnson, M., et al. (2024). "Pre‐implementation context and implementation approach for a nursing and midwifery clinician researcher career pathway: A qualitative study." Journal of Advanced Nursing. https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.16307

Academy Members

We would like to acknowledge the SPHERE Nursing and Midwifery Implementation Science Academy members who contributed to the research including Professor Sandy Middleton, Professor Caleb Ferguson, Professor Elizabeth McInnes, Professor Maree Johnson, Dr Nicola Straiton, Julie Gawthorne, Anna Thornton, Browyn Everett, Karen Tuqiri, Shahla Meedya, Lin Perry, Kate Hackett, Marilyn Cruickshank, Margaret Fry, Suzanne Sheppard-Law, Annmarie Hosie, Sally Inglis, Gemma McErlean, Deborah Debono, Ritin Fernandez, Rochelle Wynne, Josephine Chow, Louise Hickman and the support of Maridulu Budyari Gumal, the Sydney Partnership for Health, Education, Research and Enterprise (SPHERE).

Contact us

If you would like to discuss this project and the Pathway in more detail contact Professor Sandy Middleton
sandy.middleton@acu.edu.au or Dr Nicola Straiton nicola.straiton@acu.edu.au.