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9cf70c4f-6d1c-4acf-8a29-5aa00565f951 ADOPTED (PhD): PREPARE-to-ACT study: Preparing for and Responding to Emergencies – A multi-phased qualitative investigation of Patients’ And members of their RElational networks’ decisions to use urgent and emergency care during Anti-Cancer Treatment Principal Investigator: John Defty, University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust Start: September 2022 Ends: September 2026 Background Complications of anti-cancer treatment can be life threatening . Anti-cancer treatments, including chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and immunotherapy, are increasingly provided on a day-case basis , meaning that complications occur at home and necessitate a response from urgent and emergency care services . Evidence suggests people receiving anti-cancer treatment delay seeking help despite access to dedicated emergency care (acute oncology services) . Focus of research to date has been for what reasons and when , rather than how and why, people with cancer use these services. Evidence suggests patients and informal carers rely on prior instructions from cancer specialists to identify and interpret the severity of complications but find relating to this information difficult when acutely unwell . Emergency ‘contingency planning’ was identified as a priority for improving the safety of anti-cancer treatment but, there are few studies that describe how pre-treatment emergency planning influences help-seeking for complications of anti-cancer treatment . With the number of people eligible for anti-cancer treatment expected to rise by two million by 2040, the need for research is now urgent. Results from our scoping review (completed; drafted for publication) suggest preparing for and making sense of urgent and emergency care is hard work for people with cancer. It also revealed poor understanding of how this work might differ for people receiving different types of treatment. This study aims to address these gaps by answering the question: ‘How do patients and informal carers prepare and seek help for complications of different anti-cancer treatments?’

ARC qualitative network Aim The aim of the group is to encourage debate and discussion about the place of qualitative research in health research, its core concepts and methods in a dynamic and supportive atmosphere. The group is multidisciplinary with over 140 participants drawn mainly from di fferent faculties (Health Science, Medicine, Psychology, Sociology) and universities across Wessex, and some national and international participants. The group aims to be helpful and facilitate the use and development of qualitative research in health, illness and care. Participants The group is primarily concerned with providing a peer support network and the development of knowledge and skills of early and mid-career researchers who are conducting or interested in qualitative research. Frequency of meetings The group meets every 2-3 months to discuss a specific topic related to qualitative research, with selection of topic normally driven by the members and their interests and needs. Webinar 1 May 2020 - Qualitative Longitu dinal Research (QLR) - hosted by Dr Eloise Radcliffe, from the MacMillan Survivorship Research Group & Dr Meredith Tavener, University of Newcastle, Australia Webinar 8 July 2020 - Phone and online qualitative interviews - hosted by Dr Sofia Strommer and Dr Kinda Ibrahim Webinar 2 October 2020 - Teaching and Qualitative Research Webinar 11 February 2021 - Realist synthesis - Webinar by Dr Ivaylo Vassilev, Dr Alejandra Recio Saucedo & Dr Ksenia Kurbatskaya as part of ARC Qualitative Network Webinar 12 February 2021 - Realist Synthesis Exercise for Context, Mechanism and Outcome (CMO) configuration - with Dr Ivaylo Vassilev, Dr Alejandra Recio Saucedo & Dr Ksenia Kurbatskaya as part of the ARC Qualitative Research Network Webinar 19 March 2021 - Innovative ideas for Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) in qualitative research - March 19 2021 - Presented by Dr Caroline Barker (ARC PPI lead) and Carmel McGrath - Chaired by Dr Kinda Ibrahim (download copy of presentation) Webinar Friday 18 June, 2021 11.00am-12.30pm - How to conduct a systematic review and synthesis of qualitative studies - Speakers and researchers, Dr Teresa Corbett and Dr Kate Lippiett, who will share their recent experiences in conducting systematic reviews of qualitative studies, top tips and issues to avoid. (Download copy of presentation) Webinar December 8, 2021 - 1.00pm-2.30pm - Dr Kat Bradbury explain the value of using Qualitative Research in designing interventions - A Person Based Approach (Download a copy of presentation) Webinar March 29, 2022 - 1.00pm-2.00pm - Dr Sarah Fearn and Mrs Veena Agarwal Content analysis of interviews and surveys: Methodology and application (Download a copy of the presentation) Webinar April 28, 2022 - 11.00am-12.30pm -Dr Amanda Blatch-Jones and Dr Katie Meadmore share their experience of using netnography to explore funding committee practice allocation of research funding. (Download a copy of the presentation) Webinar June 9, 2022 - Professor Carl May presents “qualitative studies of innovations in treatment, organisations, and delivery of healthcare services: how the normalisation process theory coding manual can help?" Webinar October 6, 2022 -Dr Kate Lyle and Dr Susie Weller : Exploring the complexity of patient journeys: analysing, representing and communicating experiences through visual methods Webinar March 29, 2023 - download slides : WATCH: Video Reflexive Ethnography as a research and healthcare improvement tool – methodology and application. Webinar September 15, 2023: Watch:Decolonising qualitative research: Employing a critical cultural safety lens to address inequity and social justice Dr Elissa Elvidge Slides Webinar December 1, 2023: Watch: ARC Qualitative Research Network: Understanding Narratives Through Timeline Drawings. Webinar March 12, 2024: Watch: ARC Qualitative Network: Co-Production Webinar May 15, 2024: Watch: ARC Qualitative Network: Photo Elicitation Webinar September 2024: Watch: ARC Qualitative Network: Think Aloud Slides set 1 and Slide set 2 Webinar December 5 2024 - Using I-Poems for Deeper Insights in Qualitative Data Analysis Slides Using i-poems for deeper insights in qualitative data analysis - Lisa Ballard UoS Using I-Poems to extract the essence of a participant's experience - Chloe Langford Uos Webinar June 3 2025 - Qualitative Research Network - Digital Stories for enabling the voices of autistic children and young people to contribute to transitions in education, health and social care settings. Resources The group has developed a “MUST READ LIST” for qualitative researchers that include articles and books that discuss different areas including: challenges of conducting qualitative research; ensuring quality in qualitative research; the place of different methods of data collection; teaching qua litative research. We built this dedicated resource to help and advise people and we are constantly updating the list to include any further useful resources. If you would like to update the Must Read list email Jamie.stevenson@soton.ac.uk The group has also started building a resource of people with their expertise so members can identify at a glance the most suitable person(s) within the group to help, advise, and support on a particular topic. If you would like to add your details, please click here Group Convenor If you would like to know more about the group or interested in joining in please email Dr Kinda Ibrahim K.ibrahim@soton.ac.uk

Research Fellow < Back Francesca Zecchinato Research Fellow Workforce & Health Systems Francesca Zecchinato is a recently appointed Research Fellow within the NIHR ARC Wessex Mental Health Hub at the University of Southampton. In her current role, she is working on a mixed-methods project to identify knowledge gaps among paramedics in managing patients presenting mental health conditions. This work aims to enhance the quality of mental health care provided to patients, improve patient experiences, and offer better support for paramedics. Francesca holds a BSc in Cognitive Psychology and Psychobiology (cum laude) and a MSc in Clinical Psychology (cum laude) from the University of Padova (Italy). She has completed her PhD at the Centre for Innovation in Mental Health, School of Psychology, University of Southampton, funded by the ESRC South Coast DTP and focused on the risk posed by parental anxiety to their children and on strategies to promote the mental health of children with anxious parents. Building on her previous research exploring the needs of parents with mental illness and how services can support their children’s mental health, Francesca’s work continues to focus on understanding the needs of individuals experiencing mental health difficulties and identifying evidence-based strategies to improve care delivery. Francesca uses both quantitative and qualitative methods in her research and poses great value in the involvement of experts by experience (via Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement) throughout the research process. Previous Next

Role of patient-assessed functioning as a predictor of health service use in patients with long term mental health conditions Lead applicants: Prof David Baldwin, Prof Mari Carmen Portillo Co-applicants: Dr Leire Ambrosio, Dr Bethan Impey Project Summary: Treatments for patients with long term medical conditions are often disappointing in their effectiveness and acceptability in clinical practice. This is perhaps because they tend to be targeted at reducing troublesome symptoms rather than directed at improving everyday functioning. We have previously shown that self-assessed functioning (using a self-report scale known as the PARADISE-24) was a better predictor of health service use than is anxiety and depressive symptom severity, among a group of patients attending a Mood Disorders Service in Southampton. That research was undertaken with patients with a primary diagnosis of an anxiety or depressive disorder, and we are now interested in conducting a similar study of functioning in patients with other long-term health conditions in which anxiety and depressive symptoms are common, to understand if functioning will also be a useful predictor of health service use in these conditions. Hearing function is not one of the measures included within PARADISE-24, however, hearing loss is associated with increased likelihood of anxiety and depression and increased use of health services and our PPIE representatives highlighted sensory function as an important measure. We will therefore also include a self-report measure of hearing difficulties as well as some further questions about hearing function to see whether they also are useful in predicting use of health services in our cohorts. The long-term conditions we are going to study are gambling disorder, alcohol use disorder, ‘long-covid’ and hearing loss (those attending the University of Southampton Auditory Implant Service, USAIS). We have chosen these populations since anxiety and depression are common in all of them, and because these populations are available to us (large convenience samples). These groups would have a variety of functional symptoms: for example, memory problems might be more likely in those with alcohol use disorder, attention deficit might be common in those with gambling disorder, sleep and energy problems common in those rehabilitating after Covid-19, and independence might be relevant for those with hearing loss in later life (in addition to the hearing loss itself). Participation in the research should not be too onerous for patients. Clinical diagnoses will be identified from the medical records, and participants will report the severity of anxiety and depressive symptoms and other symptoms associated with the condition and whether they have hearing difficulties and will report on their everyday functioning using the PARADISE-24 scale at Baseline. They will be followed-up twice (at three and six months after the Baseline assessment), with further queries relating to symptom severity and functioning. The use of health services will be ascertained by self-report and through inspection of electronic health records. The findings from this study could influence clinical practice. It should help to better understand the burden of illness and could ascertain the relative importance of symptom severity and degree of functioning in predicting health service use by groups of patients with a range of long-term conditions. It could therefore result in more targeted delivery of health and social care interventions, to both improve the patient’s quality of life and reduce their need for health service use. It would also contribute to addressing the objectives of the National Institute of Health Research Applied Research Collaborative Mental Health Infrastructure programme. Read all Mental Health Hub projects

53b76e5e-c361-4791-8e01-f147de703463 SOCIAL CARE: Evaluation of Southampton City Council’s Male Engagement Worker (MEW) Project Chief Investigator: Dr Michelle Myall, Principal Research Fellow, University of Southampton Co-Investigators: Dr Sophia Taylor, Senior Research Assistant, University of Southampton; Dr Susi Lund, Visiting Research Fellow, University of Southampton Partners who will collaborate on the research: Anjelica Finnegan, Senior Male Engagement Worker, Southampton City Council; Caroline Bate, Domestic Abuse Coordinator, Southampton City Council; Colin McAllister, Senior Public Health Practitioner, Southampton City Council; Francesca Mountfort, Male Engagement Worker, Southampton City Council Start Date: 19 October 2023 End date: 30 September 2024 Why is this research needed? An estimated 2.4 million adults experienced domestic abuse in 2019 in England and Wales. In April 2021 the Domestic Abuse Act was introduced in England and Wales. This created a new definition of domestic abuse to include “any incidents or patterns of incidents of controlling, coercive, or threatening behaviour, violence or abuse between those aged 16 or over, who are or have been, intimate partners or family members regardless of gender or sexuality. Domestic abuse can encompass, but is not limited to psychological, physical, sexual, financial and emotional abuse”. The Act required local authorities to expand their support and provision available to those experiencing domestic abuse. As part of a review by Southampton City Council into whether it meets the requirements of the new Act it found that alleged perpetrators of domestic abuse are not being effectively assessed or adequately supported. This is particularly true of young (step-) fathers. To address this gap, in 2020 Southampton City Council established a Male Engagement Worker (MEW) Project to work with high-risk male perpetrators of domestic abuse who have (step-) children and have local authority children’s services involved. This newly established service has yet to be evaluated. What are the aims? To evaluate Southampton City Council’s new domestic abuse service focusing around the newly created Male Engagement Worker Project. How will the study be carried out? We will carry out interviews with key informants and relevant stakeholders and analyse audit data collected about the service. What will happen to the findings? We will work with our project partners to identify who we need to engage and how to reach them. We will share findings with stakeholders through a presentation. We will produce a report and executive summary of findings and recommendations for Southampton City Council and share learnings with other relevant local authority and third sector organisations. Findings will also be reported on social media posts for the wider public, publications in academic and professional journals and attendances at conferences.

d213d93c-85f6-44bc-bd30-219d08d1075e COMPLETED: Material Citizenship Framework Project Principal Investigator : Professor Jackie Bridges (Professor of Older People's Care, School of Health Sciences, University of Southampton) Co-investigator : Dr Kellyn Lee (Visiting Fellow, School of Health Sciences, University of Southampton) Researchers: Dr Jane Frankland, Leah Fullegar Collaborator: Zoe McCallum (Chief Operating Officer, Brendoncare) Started : 1 February 2020 Completed: 30 November 2022 Project partners: Brendoncare Foundation. Co-funded by University of Southampton ESRC Impact Acceleration Account, Alzheimer’s Society, The Brendoncare Foundation Concept Material Citizenship, a new approach to dementia care, uses objects used to carry out tasks (such as a mobile phone or curling tongs) as a mechanism for improving the care experience for care home staff and people living with dementia in care homes. It does so by: Encouraging care home staff to include personal possessions in care plans Support use of personal possessions to maintain routines and rituals Enable people living with dementia to carry out everyday tasks, supporting them to the live the life they want to live Impacts Material Citizenship training was delivered to four care homes, part of two care organisations in the UK. Adopting a Material Citizenship approach has had a positive effect on many of the people who live, work and visit these care homes. According to one care home manager, taking a Material Citizenship approach has transformed how they provide care. They have seen an improvement in the wellbeing of residents and increased confidence in staff who attended the training. Care home staff are now supporting people living with dementia to engage in meaningful activities such as delivering newspapers, baking bread and polishing their own rooms – with the polish they like. It has also had a more fundamental impact on the care practices of a care home. In one care home the manager gave an example of how it has changed the culture in the care home. Prior to introducing Material Citizenship catering staff worked certain times of the day and food was restricted to set meal times. This has changed and catering staff are now available to support residents in meal choices and meal times that suit them. It was also reported that prior to Material Citizenship, time restrictions of when people should leave the care home and return to the care home were in place. Residents no longer need to be back at certain times, they have more freedom to come and go as they wish, something noted by an external healthcare professional as being wonderful. Material Citizenship has enabled care home staff to grow in confidence. Prior to attending training care home staff were observed to be frequently deferential when interacting with visiting healthcare professionals. Now care home staff are more willing to engage and assert themselves to get the best possible outcome for residents. By applying a Material Citizenship approach it has been reported staff are less likely to rush to the assumption that medical intervention might be the best way forward to to reduce behaviours they find challenging. Instead, staff are using objects as a way of exploring why a person may be communicating in a negative way and have more confidence when working with people living with dementia. Publication: Material Citizenship: An ethnographic study exploring object–person relations in the context of people with dementia in care homes

6b068013-6ee6-484b-88bf-12a053cec877 Wessex SNSDE Study (SETT Centre) Project lead: Professor Chris Kipps, University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust Development and Testing of Collaborative Data Science Approaches with the Southampton Emerging Therapies and Technologies Centre and the Wessex Secure Data Environment The Southampton Emerging Therapies and Technologies (SETT) Centre, in partnership with NIHR ARC Wessex, has awarded support to four early-stage data science projects. This is a collaborative initiative to develop and test data science approaches addressing compound pressures across health and care systems. The project aims to build analytic capacity by bringing together clinical, academic, and data science expertise from University Hospital Southampton (UHS), the University of Southampton, and other regional partners with a focus on 4 use cases. Central to this work is the Wessex Secure Data Environment (SDE), part of a national programme to provide safe, secure access to clinical data. The SETT data team curates and onboards health data into the SDE, enabling secure and effective data analysis. Substance Use Disorder: Analysing electronic health records to understand how substance use impacts hospital services and to inform more effective interventions. Neurocritical Blood Pressure Control: Comparing the effectiveness of two drugs (labetalol and nicardipine) in managing blood pressure in very unwell patients, with a focus on clinical outcomes and resource efficiency. Liver Monitoring in IBD: Assessing liver function test monitoring in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) to improve early detection of liver disease and clinical pathways. Digital Tools for Rare Liver Disease: Evaluating how digital tools can improve care and screening for primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC), a rare and progressive liver disease. This initiative has a focus on improvements in patient care and resource efficiency, while also building data science capacity to enable innovation in health and care delivery.

Understanding, addressing, and meeting the complex needs of people living with long term physical and mental health conditions: a qualitative study Lead applicant: Prof Mari Carmen Portillo and Dr Leire Ambrosio Co-applicants: Prof David Baldwin, Dr Lindsey Cherry, Dr Kate Lippiett, Dr Pritti Aggarwal, Mr William Barnaby Jones, Dr Sara McKelvie What problem will the research address and what evidence do you have this is a major concern for the public and health and care providers of Wessex? People with long term physical conditions are 2-3 times more likely to have mental health problems than the general population: at least 30% of adults with such conditions also have mental health problems (like anxiety and depression). People living with physical and mental long term conditions experience hardships relating to health, and have complex psychosocial, environmental, financial, and spiritual needs. Healthcare professionals find it difficult to provide fully integrated care for these populations, due to systematic barriers and fragmentation of services. The NHS has incorporated an initiative involving Social Prescribing Link Workers (SPLW) in response to these complex needs. SPLWs connect people to community local services to meet needs through a comprehensive person-centred approach. However, the way in which this initiative occurs in different areas and services is variable, and there is unclear guidance for primary care services about how to integrate this novel workforce into wider efforts to address and meet the complex needs of people living with long term physical and mental conditions. Where will the research take place and who will you involve? The project will be undertaken in primary care practices in Hampshire, the Isle of Wight and Oxfordshire, and with a range of local third sector organizations (e.g., Anxiety UK, Mind). Semi-structured interviews will be undertaken with people living with long term physical and mental health conditions. Subsequent focus groups will explore the range of care provider perspectives (e.g., social prescribing link workers, GPs, nurses, practice managers). We expect to interview 20-25 individuals and conduct 4-6 focus groups with 6-8 participants per group. Maximum variation sampling will focus on sociodemographic characteristics (age, sex, ethnicity, socioeconomic background), with a sharp focus on disadvantage and deprivation. Overall aim: To determine the barriers and facilitators to successful implementation of the SPLW role in primary care for individuals living with long term physical and mental conditions. Specific objectives. Identify the range of health and social needs of people living with long term physical and mental conditions. Explore provider perspectives about social prescribing link workers role implementation and effectiveness for people living with long term physical and mental conditions. Explore user perspectives about social prescribing link workers role implementation and effectiveness Explore how, SPLW implementation methods can be adapted to better meet the needs of culturally diverse populations including those living within deprived areas. Explore potential limitations of SPLW model for people living with long term physical and mental conditions. Co-produce recommendations to enable effective implementation of social prescribing link workers to address health and social needs of people living with long term physical and mental conditions. A qualitative design, utilising semi-structured interviews and focus groups will be conducted. Patients and the public will contribute to all aspects of the research process. How will the findings inform improvements in population health and patient care. Following this study, a comprehensive tailored programme will be developed to address the complex needs of people with long term physical and mental conditions including those living in deprived areas. Plans for its implementation will be explored involving key stakeholders from and integrated Care System (ICS), Primary care Networks (PCNs), Local Authorities and any other organizations/sectors that may benefit from the findings. Read all Mental Health Hub projects

Healthier Southampton Many of the things that affect our health also affect the environment. For example, the foods that we eat and whether we walk or drive. Some of these things also affect whether we can access good quality, nutritional food- for example, what lunches are provided by schools or colleges, and whether people can get a local allotment. It can be useful to see weight, food, and the environment as part of a complex system, a web of things that all influence each other. We are running a research exercise with local community members in Southampton on the 26th November, and we’ll share the results of that meeting here. We will run some more community gatherings on 3rd December 2025 where we will talk through the results of our research exercise and take part in a series of activities in small groups designed to explore the Southampton system in more detail. If you have any questions or comments about this research, please email j.l.barker@soton.ac.uk .

91dc7d16-9cb6-45e1-b40a-33037865948b COMPLETED: Digital support for maintaining physical activity in people with long-term conditions What promotes and prevents health professionals using ‘digital’ technologies to support people with long-term conditions (LTCs) to maintain physical activity and improve their health and wellbeing? Principle Investigator - Professor Mary Barker ( meb@mrc.soton.ac.uk ) Senior Research Assistant – Dr James Gavin ( j.p.gavin@soton.ac.uk ) Team Prof Mary Barker (PI), Prof Maria Stokes (Co-Lead), Prof Suzanne McDonough (Co-Lead at RCSI), Mrs Luisa Holt, Dr Aoife Stephenson (RCSI), Mr Paul Muckelt, Dr Nisreen Alwan, Dr Katherine Bradbury, Dr James Faulkner (University of Winchester), Dr Dorit Kunkel, Dr Euan Sadler, Prof Sandy Jack, Mrs Rachael Eckford, Mr Jem Lawson (PPI) and Mr Ranj Parmar (PPI) Project partners • Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland • University of Winchester What did we find? We interviewed 15 GPs and health professionals to find out their experiences of using digital technologies, such as online consultations, mobile-phone applications (or ‘apps’) and websites, to support people with LTCs to manage their health. We now have a better understanding of the factors preventing and promoting the use of digital technologies by health professionals to support people with LTCs in the NHS. These included: Preventing : one ‘app’ will not suit all LTCs, ‘apps’ must be user-friendly and accurate, clinicians need to dedicate time to the technology, security risks, patients need to have digital literacy, and long-term investment is required (time and finance). Promoting : ‘apps’ being evidence based, peer/social support of GP networks (including positive feedback), charity endorsement, COVID-19 changing people’s attitudes to digital health, ‘apps’ being linked to a hospital’s IT systems, accountability/monitoring of ‘apps’, and digital champions What difference will this make? Better understanding of the factors preventing and promoting the use of digital technologies by NHS healthcare professionals can help researchers develop new assessments and interventions to help people with LTCs to self-manage their conditions. In future, it could inform a regional evaluation of existing self-management programmes and initiatives to support people with LTCs to maintain their health and physical activity, from a digital perspective What are we doing with this? We are finalising a research paper for journal publication We are interpreting the research findings with a view to ‘implement’, or help the uptake of the knowledge into practice in writing the paper In conjunction with the ‘non-digital’ MOTH study, we are in the process of applying for funding through the Impact Fund to work with MOVE Consulting ( www.moveconsulting.co.uk ) who have specific expertise with physical activity behaviour change. The aim is to produce a plan for how best to proceed with improving partnership working within Wessex. What next? We plan to combine the non-digital and digital findings from the MOTH programme and apply for funding to evaluate existing example(s) of good practice, which currently support people with LTCs to maintain physical activity (with and without digital technologies), for health and wellbeing. This would be with a view to identifying beneficial modifications to both partnership working and the ways in which they are supported with self-management of their lifelong physical activity levels. A suitable funding call is the NIHR Research for Patient Benefit (RfPB) programme (tiers 2 or 3), with the next call targeted at Methodologists . Non-Digital Moth Summary Publications https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076221089778

If you are a researcher looking for poster or presentation templates, logos, advice and tips then this is the page for you Reports, toolkits and support Presentations Read more Podcasts Read more Evidence briefs Read more Need help with publication wording? Read more Need an ARC Wessex logo? Right click on logo to save Click here for more NIHR logos Do you ever need useful background information? Below are a few guides: Confused by ICS/ICB & ICP? Read this King's Fund explainer: Integrated care systems explained:making sense of systems, places and neighbourhoods Implementation, knowledge mobilisation and impact: A cross ARC guide UK Evidence Ecosystem Take a look and have a play with this interactive map below Presentations If you are presenting on behalf of ARC Wessex then here are the presentation templates and poster templates you should use: ARC Wessex Powerpoint template (Updated Nov 25) ARC Wessex A0 Poster (portrait) template ARC Wessex A0 (landscape) template Download Download Download All Videos Play Video Play Video 57:29 Qualitative Research Network - Digital Stories - 3 June 2025 Digital Stories for enabling the voices of autistic children and young people to contribute to transitions in education, health and social care settings. Talk by Professor Sarah Parsons. Sarah Parsons is Professor of Autism and Inclusion in Southampton Education School at the University of Southampton. Sarah has longstanding research interests in the educational experiences of autistic children, young people and adults and their families. Play Video Play Video 55:48 ARC Qualitative Network-‘Using I-Poems for Deeper Insights in Qualitative Data Analysis’. ‘Using I-Poems for Deeper Insights in Qualitative Data Analysis’. Lisa is based in Clinical Ethics, Law, and Society (CELS) in the school of Primary Care, Population Science, and Medical Education in the Faculty of Medicine where she is researching ethical and psychosocial aspects of genetic and genomic medicine. She is also a senior research fellow for the National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centre: Data, Health and Society theme. Using I-Poems to extract the essence of a participant's experience Play Video Play Video 01:01:15 ARC Wessex Webinar Diet inequalities and health 24th Feb 2025 Play Video Play Video 01:01:24 CRED Talk: Join Dementia Research 19th Feb 2025 Play Video Play Video 55:38 Social Care lunchtime seminar #15 Recruitment and retention on Adult Social Care Research from Professor Lee-Ann Fenge and Dr Any Pulman from Bournemouth University looks at factors in retention and recruitment in a study carried out in the South of England Play Video Play Video 38:45 Social Care lunchtime seminar #14 Play Video Play Video 55:48 Using I-Poems for Deeper Insights in Qualitative Data Analysis Two amazing speakers share their experiences in using the method: Lisa Ballard and Chloe Langford Play Video Play Video 46:22 ARC Wessex Webinar - Supporting Good Nursing Care 02/12/2024 Chair: Catherine Smith, Associate Director Workforce Research and Innovation, Hampshire and Isle of Wight NHS Foundation Trust Speakers: Dr Christina Saville, Lecturer in Healthcare Management and Leadership, University of Southampton. The Professional Judgement Framework for nurse staffing reviews. Dr Chiara Dall’ora, Associate Professor, University of Southampton. Because they're worth it? The impact of 12-hour shifts on nurses' burnout and on patient safety. Cindy Brooks, Doctoral Researcher and Research Fellow, University of Southampton. Creating Learning Environments for Compassionate Care (CLECC): Advocating an agency-structure approach. Play Video Play Video 59:41 CRED Talk Improving quality of life for those receiving homecare-20241121_160150-Meeting Recording Play Video Play Video 39:33 Social Care lunchtime seminar #13_Internships With Professor Lee-Ann Fenge, ARC Wessex Social Care lead, based at Bournemouth University Play Video Play Video 53:44 Social Care lunchtime Seminar 19 9 25 - Rachel Harrison Building Bridges: Elevating Research Culture in Social Care through Collaboration, Qualitative Insight and Relationship-Driven Impact Dr Rachel Harrison Rachel.Harrison@winchester.ac.uk Play Video Play Video 01:01:29 ARC Qualitative Network-_Think aloud interviews - 9/9/24 “Using think aloud interviews as part of the Person Based Approach to optimising behaviour change interventions” with two amazing speakers who have significant experience and expertise in using “think aloud interviews” Dr Rosie Essery is a Senior Research Fellow and Health Psychologist in the Primary Care Research Centre at Southampton. Her work focuses on developing and evaluating behaviour change interventions to support self-management of health. Dr Mary Steele is a research fellow working in primary care at the University of Southampton. Her research involves the development and evaluation of online behaviour change interventions. Load More Video presentations Slides Professor Jane Ball presentation Improving the Wellbeing of the Health & Care Workforce - Slide-set 1 Download Professor Jill Maben presentation Improving the Wellbeing of the Health & Care Workforce - Slide-set 2 Download Professor Jackie Bridges presentation Improving the Wellbeing of the Health & Care Workforce - Slide-set 3 Download Wessex Domestic Violence & Abuse Research Event - June 22 2021 - Presentations - Download PDF Download Download How has Covid-19 changed the way we do research? Slide-set - Stephen Lim, Caroline Barker & Kat Bradbury Presentations Podcasts Finding the Power in Empowerment - Episode One - Long Term Conditions- Sam and Lynn are joined by guests Holly and Mick. Finding the power in empowerment - Episode Two Research and Co-production Finding the power in empowerment - Episode Three Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond Finding the Power in Empowerment Episode Four Moving from Child to Adult Services Finding the Power in Empowerment Episode 5: Chronic Pain Patient and Practitioner Finding the Power in Empowerment: Episode 6 Reflections on Empowerment podcasts evidence brief Evidence briefs Evidence-briefs: short summaries and overviews of research addressing the key questions in Workforce and Health Systems December 2025 - Negotiating competing priorities in nurse shift scheduling Globally, healthcare systems are losing nursing staff due to a poor work-life balance, among other job factors. Shift scheduling is a point of potential and actual conflict between organisations and nursing staff because of their differing priorities. Through interviews with nursing staff and managers, this evidence brief reports the findings of a qualitative study that reveals that collaborative and compromising approaches are the most effective ways to prevent conflicts from escalating. By reasonably meeting nurses’ preferences through these approaches, organisations can support both individual well-being and organisational goals. Conversely, rigid policies and competing approaches often lead to conflict, low morale and turnover. 25_12 Negotiating Competing Priorities in Nurse Shift Scheduling_ARC format .pdf Download PDF • 219KB May 2025 - Is the quality of maternity care related to the number of midwives and their workload? Maternity staffing is variable from day to day and between organisations; there are also fluctuations in the demand for care. This evidence brief outlines the quantitative evidence on the relationship between staffing levels and the quality of maternity care, including four new studies based on existing NHS data in England. Maternity services need to provide safe, effective and person-centred care for women and families. When staffing is below expected or workload is high, it is important to understand the consequences across a wide range of patient outcomes. Download the full report here March 2025 - What is the evidence to support the use of Birthrate Plus® to guide safe staffing in maternity services? The Ockenden review of maternity services at the Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust highlighted the urgent need to ensure adequate staffing levels in maternity care and called for a review of the feasibility and accuracy of the Birthrate Plus tool and associated methodologies. Birthrate Plus ® is a system that is used to guide workforce planning for midwifery, informing decisions about the number of midwives to employ in order to maintain safe and high quality care (establishment setting). In this review we consider the available evidence to support the use of Birthrate Plus based on a recently published systematic scoping review. Read 25_03 Birthrate Plus ARC format .pdf Download PDF • 298KB February 2025 | eHealth literacy and the use of NHS111 online. What does it mean for accessing and using urgent care? Many health care systems, including the NHS, use online services to support the delivery of care, a trend which was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Patients are increasingly encouraged to access and use online health services such as the NHS 111 online urgent care service, which assesses, triages and signposts users to other health services where necessary. Services like NHS 111 online require people to have sufficient motivation, knowledge of health and of services, and to be able to use digital technologies (‘eHealth literacy’). Whilst digital technologies may seem almost ubiquitous in many aspects of daily life, it is estimated that many millions in the UK do not go online or lack the skills to use the Internet effectively. The push towards accessing care online may exacerbate health inequalities due to variations in peoples’ level of eHealth literacy. However, the relationship between eHealth literacy and the use of urgent online services such as NHS 111 online is not clear. This Evidence Brief describes the findings of a two-year study undertaken by the University of Oxford and the University of Southampton. It summarises the findings of a survey that measured eHealth literacy and preferences of users and non-users of NHS 111 online. 25_02 _ehealth literacy and NHS 111 online_ARCformat[57] .pdf Download PDF • 176KB July 2024 - What do we know about frailty in the adult population in England? Frailty is an aging-related syndrome of physiological decline, which results in reduced ability of a person to recover from minor health problems. It is common in older adults and increases the likelihood of hospital admissions and a move to residential care. Services supporting older patients with moderate or severe frailty have been developed across the healthcare sector. However, there is a lack of research describing how frailty evolves within the whole adult population and its impact on health services. In 2017, NHS England introduced routine frailty identification for patients aged 65 and over in General Practice, using tools such as electronic Frailty Index (eFI). As well as improving patient care, use of the eFI enables large-scale population studies to explore the epidemiology of frailty and inform future health service provision. This Evidence Brief describes the results of research that analysed a large primary care dataset of adults in England to understand how common frailty is in adults aged 50 and older, how quickly it progresses and the consequent impact on the use of health services. 26_07_Frailty_Dynamics ARC format .pdf Download PDF • 634KB March 2024 - Is it cost-effective to deploy more nurses on hospital wards? Currently the National Health Service (NHS), in common with many health systems around the world, faces shortages of registered nurses. Common sense and a huge body of evidence suggest this is far from ideal to deliver high-quality patient care. In acute general hospitals, when there are fewer registered nurses, more patient care is missed, quality is reduced and patient outcomes are worse. But fixing the problem is likely to be expensive and it is important to ask if this is the best way to spend money in a resource-limited system. Are there alternatives to using registered nurses? In this Evidence Brief, we summarise a recent systematic review answering whether investing in registered nurses represents value for money, and considers whether using support staff with lower qualification levels might provide a more cost-effective solution to nurse shortages. 25_03_Cost Effectiveness of Staffing Level ARC format (1)[34] .pdf Download PDF • 364KB November 2023: Introducing the Professional Judgement Framework to guide nurse staffing decisions Working out how many nursing staff are needed to provide safe care on a hospital ward is complicated, as many factors affect the amount of work. Many tools are available to help estimate the work and the staff needed, but no single tool captures everything, meaning that using professional judgement remains important. Nonetheless, numbers of nursing staff generated by tools may be trusted more than decisions based on professional judgement, which can be seen as too subjective. Providing a framework to help guide new managers in using professional judgement and to help experienced managers justify their thinking may help overcome this challenge. This Evidence Brief describes the development of a Professional Judgement Framework to guide nurse staffing decisions, based on our safe staffing research and nurse workforce expert guidance. 24_11_Professional_Judgement_Staffing_Eprints[16] .pdf Download PDF • 186KB September 2022 - How do long shifts, overtime, and higher patient load influence activities that support good nursing practice? How do long shifts, overtime, and higher patient load influence activities that support good nursing practice? Nursing workforce factors like shift length, workload, and use of overtime are known to influence care quality and staff wellbeing. But to what extent do these factors influence other aspects of nursing work - such as care coordination and continuous professional development? We used data from a large national survey of nurses to see if working long shifts, overtime, and having higher patient loads influenced nurses’ opportunities for completing activities that support good practice. Read evidence brief 23_09-indirect-nursing-work-arc-format .pdf Download PDF • 147KB May 2022 - What makes it difficult for patients to ask for help in hospital? What makes it difficult for patients to ask for help in hospital? Failures in fundamental care of hospital patients can have serious consequences, including patients dying unnecessarily. NHS policy and nursing theory emphasise shared decision making by staff and patients. However they do not consider what prevents nurses providing care as they would wish, nor the difficulties patients can face in alerting staff to missed care. Researchers from the University of Southampton interviewed 20 patients and six focus group members about their experiences of involvement in fundamental care decisions in hospitals, including whether they raised missed care with staff and if not, why not. This evidence brief presents our findings, taken from our recent paper. Download evidence brief may-2022-what-makes-it-difficult-for-patients-to-ask-for-help-in-hospital-final_new-logo-1 .pdf Download PDF • 132KB March 2022 - Are poor experiences on postnatal wards linked to staffing levels? Are poor experiences on postnatal wards linked to staffing levels? Experts are growing increasingly concerned about the sustainability of the midwifery workforce, with unfilled vacancies in the thousands, an ageing workforce with many taking early retirement, and difficulty retaining newly qualified midwives. Staffing studies have focussed on the quality of care in labour, with fewer studies looking at staffing levels in relation to postnatal care. This Evidence Brief describes a cross-sectional analysis of women’s responses to the Maternity Survey 2018 linked to midwifery staffing levels in each Trust. Researchers at the University of Southampton aimed to understand whether the experience of care on postnatal wards varies according to the number of midwives available. They have focused on experiences of postnatal care while in hospital, as this is an area where families have expressed dissatisfaction. Download evidence brief 22_03_postnatalstaffing_arcformat .pdf Download PDF • 104KB August 2021 - How long do nurses take to measure patients’ vital signs, and does it matter? How long do nurses take to measure patients’ vital signs, and does it matter? Patients in hospital may be at risk of unexpected deterioration. Monitoring patients’ vital signs, for example blood pressure and heart rate, ensures that any deterioration can be spotted early. This means that monitoring patients’ vital signs is an important part of safe patient care, and, if carried out effectively, has the potential to save many patients’ lives. However, previous studies have been unable to specify the workload this monitoring activity generates for nursing staff. This makes it difficult to plan how many staff are needed to monitor patients. Researchers at the University Of Southampton, University of Portsmouth and University of Oxford have teamed up to measure and estimate the time and workload associated with measuring patients’ vital signs, and this evidence brief reports what they found. Download evidence brief evidencebriefs_vitalsigns_arc .pdf Download PDF • 104KB June 2021 - What keep nurses nursing? What keeps nurses in nursing? There is a shortage of registered nurses across the world, including in the UK. As demand for care increases, we need to find ways of recruiting more nurses and retaining those already in the workforce. But what makes some nurses decide to leave their jobs, or the profession altogether, and others stay? Understanding workplace factors that influence these decisions could help employers and policymakers to create the conditions needed to keep nurses in the profession. In this Evidence Brief, we bring together the key findings from a scoping review of reports and research papers to summarise what is known about factors that influence nurse retention, and consider what more needs to be done to develop effective retention strategies. Download evidence brief 21_06_nurseretention_arcformat-37 .pdf Download PDF • 142KB May 2021 - What is the relationship between midwifery staffing levels and outcomes? Staffing levels have been implicated in cases of adverse maternity events, near misses and sub-optimal outcomes such as unwell new-borns or still births. Care that is missed due to high workload can affect the detection of deterioration in mothers and babies, and delay appropriate management. A national shortage of midwives has resulted in increased reliance on support workers but the possible effect of skill-mix changes on outcomes has not been assessed. This Evidence Brief describes a systematic scoping review to explore evidence on the association between inpatient midwifery staffing levels, skill mix and outcomes for mothers and babies. Researchers at the University of Southampton aimed to understand the amount and strength of the available evidence, the direction of relationships established, and to highlight gaps for future research. Download evidence brief evidence_brief_maternity_staffing_arc .pdf Download PDF • 134KB March 2021 - Are nurses wasting their time on the road? Automated planning using Operational Research methods can save both planning and travelling time. Researchers at the Universities of Southampton and Exeter are working to close the gap between these methods and the practicalities of home care planning. This Evidence Brief draws attention to the difficulty of finding the best route and schedule. Download evidence brief homecarerouting_eb_arcversion-1 .pdf Download PDF • 289KB October 2020 - Burnout in Nursing: what have we learnt and what do we still need to know? Burnout in Nursing: what have we learnt and what do we still need to know? Recent health workforce crises, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, have meant that burnout has often become a ‘buzzword’ to represent stress, extreme tiredness, and a willingness to quit one’s job. Several studies in nursing focus on burnout as an indicator of adverse work environments or staff characteristics. Nonetheless, what burnout is - what aspects contribute to its development and what the effect is for nurses, healthcare organisations, or their patients - is often overlooked. This evidence brief describes a review, undertaken by researchers at the University of Southampton, of the research examining relationships between burnout and work-related variables. We sought to determine what is known (and not known) about the causes and consequences of burnout in nursing, and whether these relationships confirm or dispute Maslach’s theory of burnout. Download evidence brief evidence_brief_burnout_arc_formatdocx .pdf Download PDF • 107KB September 2020 - What do we know about the Safer Nursing Care Tool? Many studies of registered nurse staffing in hospitals have shown an association between higher levels and better patient outcomes and care quality. Systems for determining the number of nursing staff needed on wards exist in abundance. However, research Download evidence brief snctevidencebrief_arcformat .pdf Download PDF • 121KB August 2020 - Making sense of urgent care: how and why do people use health services? Urgent care typically describes healthcare for non-life threatening conditions requiring prompt attention (‘same day’ or within 24 hours). In England, urgent care services have proliferated partly to divert people from attending overcrowded emergency departments but also to address policy concerns of patient choice and improved access to care. Download evidence brief urgentcareproject_evidence_brief_urgentcare_jturnbull_cs_190820_arcformat .pdf Download PDF • 151KB July 2020 - Magnet Hospitals – are they better places for staff? Job-related stress and burnout are prevalent amongst healthcare staff; in particular, nurses in the UK have one of the highest levels of burnout in any country in Europe. Tackling this problem is a high priority in the UK and in other countries where shortages of healthcare professionals are affecting healthcare delivery. ‘Magnet’ hospitals are reputed to attract and retain staff, and to achieve better outcomes for patients. But what do we know about whether Magnet hospitals are ‘better’ places for staff to work, and whether they improve staff wellbeing? Download evidence brief eb_magnet_21_7_20_arcformat .pdf Download PDF • 148KB February 2020 - What difference have safe staffing policies made to hospitals in the NHS? The Francis inquiries in 2010 and 2013 highlighted nurse staffing as a patient safety factor contributing to the care failings identified at Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust. The reports and government response led to the development of national ‘safe staffing’ policy. Download evidence brief prp_evidence_brief_12_v7_arcformat .pdf Download PDF • 218KB

09039be4-7f54-4e52-b415-7d6e49acfe67 Predicting nurse staffing requirements -validation and scoping extension study (PREDICT-NURSE validation and extension) Chief Investigator: Paul Meredith, Senior Research Fellow, University of Southampton Team: Christina Saville, Senior Research Fellow, University of Southampton Chiara Dall’Ora, Associate Professor in Health Workforce, University of Southampton Zlatko Zlatev, Senior Enterprise Fellow, University of Southampton Peter Griffiths, Chair in Health Sciences Research, University of Southampton Ian Dickerson, PPI Representative Tom Weeks - E Systems Implementation Manager Tom.Weeks@porthosp.nhs.uk Sue Wierzbicki - Lead Nurse - Workforce Sue.Wierzbicki@porthosp.nhs.uk Partners: Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care Board, Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust, Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust. Start: 1 October 2024 End: 30 September 2025 Our aim We aim to show that a computer algorithm we have developed which uses information that is already collected about patients can provide good estimates of the number of nurses needed on hospital wards to provide safe care for the patients. Background information It is important to have enough nurses to care for patients on hospital wards. If there are too few nurses, patients may take longer to recover, suffer complications, or die, and the capacity of the hospital to cope with new admissions is reduced. Also staff well-being is affected by high workloads and there is more staff sickness. Many hospitals use the Safer Nursing Care Tool (SNCT) to help them manage staffing levels. This involves surveying all the patients in a ward perhaps three times a day. Assessing each patient in this way is an extra nursing task and in itself adds to the workload. We have developed a computer algorithm using data from one hospital which can provide similar estimates of nursing staff requirements to SNCT but we need to check that these estimates would keep patients safe if they were followed. What we will do We shall use data collected for a previous study as input to the algorithm to produce estimates of nurse staffing requirements for each ward shift using information which could be known at the time. We will compare actual staffing with the algorithm’s estimate to see if there is a deficit or surplus of staff. For each admission we will examine how these deficits and surpluses relate to patient outcomes. We will compare using the algorithm to set a threshold for safe staffing with using the SNCT estimates as a threshold. Our comparisons will include looking at how good the methods are for wards with higher numbers of under-served groups such as the over 75s, those with learning disabilities and those with mental health conditions. We will measure the effect of staff shortfalls on the number of staff sickness absences. The performance of the algorithm will be checked using data from a second hospital in the database. We shall work with our partners to find out what tools are used to determine nurse and other staffing requirements on a day-to-day basis in community and mental health settings and what data on care requirements and outcomes is electronically recorded. We will discuss with partners what opportunities, potential benefits and practical considerations there are to implementing a predictive tool of staffing requirements. Communicating results We will write an academic paper, produce an article for the Nursing Times, create a poster for display at conferences, and publicise the results on social media. Involving the public We will involve local PPIE group members in evaluating and commenting on the possible uses of a predictive tool to support decisions in the day-to-day management of nurse staffing levels on wards.