"I have been working in my role for a while and having settled back in following my return from maternity leave, I was looking for my next challenge!

I received an email from a colleague about the opportunity and thought it sounded really interesting and something I had never really had the opportunity to get involved with before.

Within my role, we often carry out audits or service improvement projects so I thought it would give me the opportunity to take this a little further."

"My area of interest is focused around the link between metabolic health and musculoskeletal conditions. It started after noticing a big difference in how well some people seemed to manage their arthritic pain.

Throughout the Chief Nurse Research Fellow programme,  my project focused on how metabolic health can impact the development, progression and pain severity of osteoarthritis and whether physiotherapists recognise and address this. 

Since completing the programme, my passion for this has expanded into how metabolic health impacts musculoskeletal conditions in general."

"Quite how much I loved it!

Before starting the programme I loved the idea of learning a bit more and carrying out my own quality improvement project but had never considered how much impact it would have on my career aspirations.

I absolutely loved doing the work and my passion for my area of research just keeps growing and growing, I  am now even considering going on to do a PhD!"

"The ongoing support from Maggie and Helen was fantastic, the whole programme was inspiring, motivating and having the peer support of all my other colleagues on the programme was invaluable.

The fellowship provided a very interesting and informative programme of learning and gave us support to complete our own literature search and quality improvement project, inspiring us to go beyond our comfort levels and present at conferences etc."

"After completing the programme it is safe to say that I truly caught the research bug! It opened my eyes to a new potential career pathway and fueled my passion for making a change in my area of interest.

I went on to apply for an NIHR funded internship and was successful in securing this grant opportunity. This allowed me to further develop my research skills, develop my own experts by experience patient advisory group and I am currently conducting my own systematic review exploring the Efficacy of multifactorial lifestyle interventions in osteoarthritis.

This has opened the door to so many opportunities, and I have pushed myself to do things I would not have thought possible, including presenting at a national orthopaedic conference and actively being involved in others research projects too.

I am currently exploring new research funding opportunities and considering applying to do a PhD."

"My article, "managing metabolic osteoarthritis in primary care: A survey of first contact physiotherapist’s knowledge, confidence and role perception" was recently published in the south west clinical schools journal. You can read it here."

"Go for it! Without a doubt! 

It was a really inspiring, motivating and potentially career changing opportunity, I promise you, even if you do not decide to go down the research route afterwards, it still provided so many additional skills and great friends along the way!"