Impactful research: Professor Stephen Timmons, Deputy Director of CHILL
Within the OB/HRM area, much of the work of the Centre for Health Innovation Leadership and Learning takes place alongside regional and national healthcare organisations and seeks to make an impact to the lives of healthcare staff, managers and patients.
The NHS remains short of nurses and midwives. While there has been much media and policy attention on recruitment, retention of nurses and midwives is probably more important in improving services for patients.
Professor Stephen Timmons of Nottingham University Business School has been working with the NHS in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire to enhance retention of nurses and midwives in the NHS. One project, called ‘Legacy Mentors’, focuses on older nurses and midwives who have a wealth of experience and expertise. It’s important for the NHS not to lose them, and for their knowledge to be passed on to younger staff.
The Legacy Mentors programme, managed by Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, gives this group of nurses and midwives one day a week for six months to work on a project of their choice, as well as a personal development programme. The Legacy Mentors programme is already showing promising results, with some really creative and effective projects from the nurses and midwives who have participated.
Other initiatives are working with mid and early career nurses and midwives, all with the aim of helping to keep those staff working in the NHS, as well as a programme aimed at supporting nurses returning to practice after a career break. A key collaborator on all of this work is Professor Sue Haines of the Nottingham University Hospitals Institute for Care Excellence, whose doctorate was supervised by Professor Timmons, and by Dr Hannah Noke of the Nottingham University Business School Haydn Green Institute.
