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£1 million healthcare training scheme

03/03/2003

A £1 million training partnership scheme involving nurses, midwives and allied health professionals was launched today.

The Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Professions Research Training Scheme will address the contribution nurses, midwives and health professionals can make to health care research and help to develop the number of people within the professions who have the knowledge and experience to undertake rigorous research.

The funding follows on from the recommendations in Choices and Challenges; Strategy for Nursing and Midwifery Research and Development and Building on Success: Future Directions for the Allied Health Professions in Scotland which highlighted the need to develop the research capacity.

The partnership is between the Executive, NHS Education Scotland (NES) and the PPP Foundation, an independent healthcare charity.

The funding package comprises £300,000 from the Executive Health Department; £400,000 from NHS Education Scotland, and £300,000 from the PPP Foundation.

At the launch, Health Minister Malcolm Chisholm will say:

"At the heart of the White Paper Partnership for Care is a culture of care that is developed and fostered by a new partnership between patients, staff and the government. We want a service which responds to patients and which responds to the interests of local communities.

"These professions continue to be relatively new players in the research and development field and the partnership announced today presents opportunities for nurses, midwives and allied health professions to improve the quality of care for service users and the public in Scotland.

"Moreover, research undertaken by health professionals can assist in developing services from the patients' point of view. One of the key ways to improve health is to use good evidence of what works for patients and services.

"A patient-focused and public-involving health service must drive the planning, delivery, monitoring and development of services in NHSScotland and I know this is a shared principle of nurses, midwives and allied health professions."

The Minister will launch the partnership at the Khush Dil 'Happy Heart' Project in Edinburgh, where an action research project, funded by the British Heart Foundation, is being undertaken to evaluate the service offered to address coronary heart disease and diabetes in the South Asian population.

In advance of the visit he said:

"The Khush Dil Project is an excellent example of how a multidisciplinary team has engaged with service users and members of this community as key participants of the research process. It is an example of the innovative and forward thinking approach which can be taken, approaches which Partnership for Care seeks to encourage."

The scheme will support the partnership of two or more higher education institutions in Scotland to collaborate over three to five years to offer research training to nurses, midwives and AHPs undertaking pre-doctoral and post-doctoral studies.

Originally, the title of charity PPP was an acronym for private, patient, plan and it distributes grants to healthcare-related programmes and initiatives.

The Khush Dil 'Happy Heart' Project was launched in May 2002. Funded by the British Heart Foundation, the project works to address coronary heart disease and diabetes in the South Asian population in North East Edinburgh with an emphasis on primary prevention. Nurse-led clinics, screening and a lifestyle changing programme have all been developed as part of the project. The project won the 2002 Award of Excellence in Coronary Heart Disease and Diabetes sponsored by Merck, Sharp and Dohme and Primary Care Partnerships.

Page updated: Wednesday, July 21, 2004