“Scholionophobia* – A fear of school, college or university”
So, I want you to picture the day ….. It was a sunny September morning and there I was, a clinical pharmacist currently working in hospital, standing by the River Tees at Queen’s Campus Stockton about to enter Durham University. And I was terrified. Honestly, the last time I was this scared walking into a university building was in 2004 and I was about to sit my Registration Assessment to become a qualified pharmacist. I was obviously suffering from scholionophobia.
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| Courtesy of mothmediatech & the creators of The adventures of Worrisome Wilf books |
“But why were you so scared?” I hear you ask. Well, the answer is that I was just about to start my Health Education England (HEE) and National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Integrated Clinical Academic Internship programme.
The HEE/NIHR funded internship is a programme to enable Healthcare Professionals working in clinical practice to gain research experience and skills by working alongside a university academic. I had ahead of me, 30 days away from my clinical commitments that I could use to gain an introduction into clinical academic research.
My fear was based on the fact that I didn't know anything about research or universities. Not one bit. And I definitely wouldn't be able to do it myself. In my mind, research was only done by brilliantly clever people who know everything. I was only a lowly hospital pharmacist. I was pretty sure that I would be the most stupid person there!
Fortunately for me, I was about to meet my amazing academic mentor, and go on an adventure into the unknown world of research. I have gained experience and skills in literature searches and critical appraisal, project design and data collection, statistics, statistical analysis software (SPSS) and writing for publication. I have met so many talented, lovely people who have been interested and willing to help me, even when I probably was the most stupid one there (try explaining Poisson regression and statistics to a person who doesn’t have A-level maths!). It really has opened my eyes to the world of research, and the possibilities for clinical practitioners. My mentor has helped me realise that the skills and experience I have from clinical practice are just as important in clinical research as the skills of doing the research.
I am now coming to the end of my time. I have completed my project, which will be disseminated to local Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) to enable them to focus on key target areas to improve patient safety within antibiotic prescribing. I am also planning on publishing it, and hopefully this will allow the work to have wider impact. I have been able to take what I have learnt about research and its impact on patients back to my clinical work too. This has meant that I am more reflective and research-aware when doing my job. I have also shared this with the colleagues in my department, and hopefully encouraged them to be more research aware and active, to enable us to provide better care to our patients.
In the future I would love to do more research in conjunction with the School of Pharmacy as I have realised that blending our skills and experiences, whether they are clinical or research based, can lead to more relevant patient-focussed clinical research being undertaken. I am also trying to get other members of my department to apply for the Internship next year.
The 30 days spent at Durham University were some of the most challenging, interesting, frustrating and rewarding I have ever spent at work. My scholionophobia has been cured, with no medicines required. If you are a sufferer in clinical practice, I would recommend talking to academics in your clinical speciality and applying for the Internship; there is no need to be scared. And if you are an academic in health research there is a wealth of experience that you could utilise within the clinical teams; they would probably love to be involved, they just might be too scared to ask.
My thanks go to the team at North West Research and Development who ran the 2016/17 Internship Programme on behalf of HEE/NIHR. Also thanks to my managers at County Durham and Darlington Foundation Trust, and especially to Professor Cate Whittlesea and the School of Medicine, Pharmacy and Health at Durham University.
*Also known as Didaskaleinophobian or Scolionophobia.
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