NHS Royal Devon | Goal setting for patients who have aphasia following a stroke

Lizzie Urben, Specialist Speech and Language Therapist within the Stroke Support Team

"I would highly recommend the Chief Nurse Research Fellow programme to any of my colleagues, both those who know they would like to develop their research career and those who are not so sure. I feel that I am a better clinician for taking part."

What inspired you to apply for the opportunity?

"My research dissertation, as part of my masters degree, sparked a new passion for getting involved in research to build upon evidence-based practice and improve outcomes for my patients – I just didn’t know where to start. After discussing this with my manager in my appraisal, she signposted me to the Chief Nurse Research Fellowship."

Can you tell us a bit about your research area?

"During the CNRF and beyond I have been looking into goal setting for patients who have aphasia following a stroke. This was an area that I felt, anecdotally, patients with aphasia were getting an inequitable service despite research showing the importance of goal setting in neurorehabilitation.

My service development project, as part of this fellowship, was looking at the experiences of therapy staff in goal setting with this client group compared to those stroke patients without aphasia. Since then I have been looking into the experiences of patients with aphasia."

What surprised you most during the programme?

"Before I got involved in research, I thought it was only conducted by very clever people far away from my day-to-day clinical practice. What I actually learnt was that research in healthcare can be for everybody and requires a team with a wide variety of knowledge and skills. The fellowship was a perfect way of gaining the knowledge and contacts to enable me to get involved."

What support did you receive from the programme?

"Everyone who delivered sessions as part of the programme was very generous with their time and knowledge but I do have to give a special shout out to the mentor who helped me with my service development project completed as part of the fellowship. Her support was invaluable during this project which continues to this day."

What happened next, and what does the future look like for you in terms of research?

"I was successful in being awarded an internship through the South West NIHR which allowed me to develop my service development project further and complete patient and patient involvement and engagement (PPIE) activities. The hope is to keep developing this project, possibly with the view of applying for a doctoral fellowship in the future.

Outside of my own research – I had been able to apply the knowledge and skills from this fellowship to lead on a number of service development projects within my team, including setting up online therapy groups within the Stroke Support Team."