Leslie Gelling

• PhD MA BSc(Hons) PGCert RN FHEA FRSA
• Associate Professor in Nursing at Bournemouth University

Background Liver disease is an increasing cause of morbidity and mortality in the United Kingdom and can be challenging to live with in the advanced stages. There has been little research exploring the healthcare experiences of UK individuals with decompensated disease when the liver cannot carry out its functions properly. A PhD research project w...

Background Liver disease is a growing health concern and a major cause of death. It causes multiple symptoms, including financial, psychological and social issues. To address these challenges, palliative care can support people alongside active treatment, and towards the end of life, but little is known about the care experiences of individuals wit...

Aim Explore experiences and choices related to bowel management following spinal cord injury. Background In one UK spinal centre, more are choosing a colostomy soon after injury in contravention of professional guidelines. Reasons for this were unknown. Methods Grounded theory study using semi‐structured interviews with 12 individuals living with...

Background Clinical research studies have made significant strides globally requiring clear processes to transition research interventions into clinical practice. Theoretically implementation of novel interventions require clear methods as part of a fit for purpose framework comprising of effective adaptation processes in conjunction with practice...

Background Literature for preparing hospice nurses to deliver end-of-life care is sparse. Aim To investigate how nurses in one UK hospice prepared to deliver end-of-life care in their role. Methods A classic grounded theory approach was used to investigate the experiences of 22 registered nurses in one UK hospice, to discover how they prepared fo...

In the unparalleled and extraordinary public health emergency in which we find ourselves, across the world nurses stand as we always do – at the front line. Nurses everywhere are staffing our clinics, hospital wards and units – in some situations, literally working until they drop, and in some regions, they are doing so while dealing with a lack of...

Background Clinical research is considered as a cross-disciplinary specialty in modern day medicine merging science and clinical arenas to better public health. The rapidly changing clinical research landscape has led to an array of treatments moving towards a precision medicine platform involving complex interventions. Thus, clear processes to con...

My interest in research ethics began more than 20 years ago when I was a doctoral student seeking research ethics approval for my Grounded Theory study exploring what it was like to live with Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus. To cut a long story short, my application was rejected on two occasions primarily because the Research Ethics Committee (REC) d...

NHS regulators, such as NHS Improvement and the Care Quality Commission, promote staff involvement in quality improvement (QI), while national nursing leaders and the Nursing and Midwifery Council advocate nurses' involvement in improving services. This article critically explores the evidence base for a national nursing strategy to involve nurses...

Objective Type 1 diabetes mellitus rates are rising worldwide. The health benefits of physical exercise in this condition are many, but more than 60% do not participate, mainly from fear of hypoglycemia. This systematic review explores the effects of physical exercise modes on blood glucose levels in adults for hypoglycemia prevention. Research de...

Recently, the integrity of reporting nursing research studies has been brought into question, with claims that less than half of clinical trials published in leading nursing journals are officially registered (Gray et al 2017). These authors suggest that because of this, the quality of published outcome analysis definitions and trial registrations...

In recent years, there has been a growing acceptance that reporting guidelines are effective in improving the communication of research methods and findings, providing a more transparent and rigorous account of the design and procedures of research (Altman & Moher 2014). Academic journals play a key role in helping to increase the overall quality o...

Sharing research findings has become an increasingly important part of research as nursing is increasing required to base practice on the best available evidence. This editorial offers an insight into some of the common pitfalls to avoid when writing and submitting a paper for publication.

The need to obtain research ethical approval is common to all research involving human participants. This approval must be obtained before research participants can be approached and before data collection can begin. The process of ethical review is one way that research participants can be confident that possible risks have been considered, minimi...

Clinical research forms the foundation on which rest the advancement of medical knowledge and improvement in patient experience and outcomes. In order to obtain accurate information, as well as to protect research participants and ensure their safety, it is crucial that potential participants go through a meaningful informed consent process, and th...

Qualitative research has an important role in helping nurses and other healthcare professionals understand patient experiences of health and illness. Qualitative researchers have a large number of methodological options and therefore should take care in planning and conducting their research. This article offers a brief overview of some of the key...

The planning stage of any research project is one of the most important stages in the research process. This article offers insight into the important issues a researcher needs to consider when planning his or her research, including how to develop a research protocol, obtaining research funding, seeking academic, peer and social support, gaining r...

Research should be conducted in a systematic manner, allowing the researcher to progress from a general idea or clinical problem to scientifically rigorous research findings that enable new developments to improve clinical practice. Using a research process helps guide this process. This article is the first in a 26-part series on nursing research....

THIS ARTICLE PROVIDES an introduction to a series of 26 articles on research in nursing, to be published weekly in forthcoming issues of Nursing Standard, starting this week with 'Stages in the research process'.

Research can be a complex and challenging endeavour but the outcomes will often change peoples' lives. Such a claim stands not only for clinical trials developing new medicines or therapeutic interventions, but also for qualitative studies that help us to understand how and why people experience health and illness as they do. The real challenge for...

UNDERTAKING RESEARCH using an ethnographic approach can be one of the most challenging routes to generating new knowledge in nursing and health care. These challenges can include the time required to gain access to the research site, the duration and complexity of data collection, the role of the researcher and the impact the researcher might have...

People with motor neurone disease and their carers often have unmet support and information needs. At Saint Francis Hospice the researchers tried to find out what these needs are in order to, in turn, improve care.

ORIGINALITY IS a major ingredient of doctoral research in every discipline. Doctoral students are required to demonstrate how they have contributed new knowledge to their discipline and will use their doctoral theses and, in some countries, oral examinations to demonstrate originality to their examiners. If originality is not present, the doctorate...

In April I joined more than 400 nurse researchers at the 2014 RCN Annual International Nursing Research Conference in Glasgow. It was great to catch up with some old friends and to meet some who were attending for the first time. I first came to this conference in Sheffield in 2000 and have tried to attend most years since then. I have also been in...

IT WAS not that long ago that combining one methodological approach with another, most obviously qualitative and quantitative research designs, would have been considered fundamentally flawed. Indeed, there were many researchers who would have described themselves as either qualitative or quantitative researchers and, regardless of the research que...

ENGAGING MEN in health care can be a challenge for clinicians. Engaging men in research exploring their experiences of health care, especially when there are particular sensitivities in the health issues being investigated, creates additional challenges, which too few researchers appear willing to address.

ACTION RESEARCH has become increasingly popular with researchers and practitioners in health and social care because of the focus on changing practice and on engaging practitioners and users in the change process. Action research projects seek to take a practical approach to improving the lives and experiences of those receiving or delivering care....

FEMINIST RESEARCH focuses on the experiences of women in natural social settings, where the aim is to 'make women visible, raise their consciousness and empower them' ( Holloway and Wheeler 2013 ). Adopting a feminist approach influences what questions researchers ask and how they think about their data, but it does not usually influence how data i...

ELIZABETH ROSSER is professor of nursing and deputy dean (education) at Bournemouth University. Her research interests are in the area of workforce development in health and social care. Elizabeth is president of the Phi Mu chapter (England) of Sigma Theta Tau International (STTI), which recently hosted its inaugural conference in Bournemouth.

Action research has repeatedly demonstrated how it can facilitate problem solving and change in many settings through a process of collaboration which is driven by the community at the heart of the research. The ethical review of action research can be challenging for action researchers and research ethics committees. This paper explores how seven...

Grounded theory, first described by Glaser and Strauss (1967), has become the most commonly adopted research methodology among nurses and others undertaking qualitative research. Many have used this methodological approach and even more seem to have written about how to use it. There is considerable fit between the core elements of nursing practic...

As a Research Ethics Committee (REC) Chair in the National Health Service (NHS), one of the commonest amendments submitted for consideration by RECs relates to the need to manage poor participant recruitment and the failure to meet recruitment targets. This usually involves either extending the duration of the research, which can have significant c...

For many researchers, phenomenology can be hugely complex, so any attempt to offer an understanding of the method is to be welcomed. Whether this can be achieved in a relatively short paper is another matter and to attempt to do so would be a brave objective for any author. It is therefore important not to be mis­guided by the title of this issue’s...

Research training should be at the heart of all pre- and post-registration education programmes for all healthcare professionals. In a world in which practice is required to be grounded in the best available evidence, it is only through good education and meaningful experience that practitioners will learn the necessary skills to scrutinise researc...

This article offers practical advice on how to expedite the ethical review process.

Idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus (iNPH) is a complex and multifaceted disorder of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) circulation. This paper presents the findings of grounded theory research undertaken to explore the health and illness experiences of individuals diagnosed with iNPH. Purposive and theoretical sampling was used to recruit 26 participa...

Research should be at the core of all that nurses do – tradition and custom are no longer acceptable justifications for any action taken in clinical practice. It is now expected that everything nurses do is underpinned by the best available evidence. This does not mean that all nurses need to become accomplished researchers. But it does require nur...

Drawing on findings from a recent study of pastoral care within a primary school, this article highlights the role of fathers as a key factor in a range of successful interventions. While gains can be made in work with vulnerable children, the home–school dimension of pastoral care deserves far greater attention by schools, educationalists and rese...