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RehabilitationJul 19, 2024

Physio Alison Wildt is leading an 'exciting' research project that will help to shape rehab at NRC

Physiotherapist Alison Wildt (pictured third from left) is taking the lead in the first phase of a research project that is due to completed by the time the National Rehabilitation Centre (NRC) opens its doors next summer.

The 70-bed NRC is being built at the Stanford Hall Rehabilitation Estate near Loughborough, where the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre has been operating since it opened in 2018. 

Ms Wildt – who is the NRC’s service improvement lead – is exploring what patients are currently receiving in terms of therapy. There are plans to repeat the project once the team of health professionals has moved into the new building in 2025, when it is expected that a more intense form of therapy provision will be available.

Ms Wildt aims to gain an understanding of how this more intensive rehab programme affects patient outcomes and key indicators, such as length of stay.

In another NRC research project, which is funded by the University of Nottingham, advanced occupational therapist Louise Elphick and clinical psychologist Dr Hayley Sapsford are exploring the value of formal and informal interventions in patients with acquired brain injury. The aim is to increase patients’ insight, which has been affected by their injury.

 

Photo Credit: NRC
Four NRC researchers: Louise Elphick, Hayley Sapsford, Alison Wildt and Kerry Burvil

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Two more projects underway

A third University of Nottingham-supported research project aims to create a competency framework for the role of a ‘professional rehabilitation nurse’ – a role which does not yet exist in the UK but will be vital at the NRC.

This is being led by Jade Miller, deputy ward manager at Linden Lodge, a 25-bed specialist neurological rehabilitation unit based at Nottingham’s City Hospital. She will scope out the clinical competencies required to rehabilitate a range of patients following life-changing events with the hope of creating a future accredited course.

The fourth research project is led by Dr Sapsford and Dr Kerry Burvill – two Linden Lodge psychologists – who will explore staff and patient perspectives of the new digital technology currently being implemented at the current Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust neuro-rehabilitation unit.

These projects are exciting in their potential to directly impact and improve patient care, as well as influence the inclusion of rehabilitation technologies into the NRC [Vicy Booth]

'Exciting potential'

Vicky Booth is a physiotherapist by background who is the NRC's research workstream lead and is based at the University of Nottingham. She said: ‘These projects are exciting in their potential to directly impact and improve patient care, as well as influence the inclusion of rehabilitation technologies into the NRC.’ 

Dr Booth added: ‘This research will provide solutions to real issues that the clinical teams face every day and we are proud to be supporting such individuals to contribute to the vision of the NRC.’

Dr Booth is also a clinical-academic neurological physiotherapist and an associate professor at the School of Medicine (Rehabilitation and Ageing; Injury, Inflammation, and Recovery Sciences). She graduated as a physiotherapist in 2005 and specialised in neurology in 2008, working across different neurological rotations and patient groups in Nottinghamshire.

Increasing research capacity and capability in nurses and allied health care professionals is one of our university’s priorities, so having a broad range of professionals winning the grants for these projects is very exciting [Pip Logan]

Pip Logan, academic director for the NRC at the University of Nottingham, said: ‘It’s a great pleasure to be able to offer this opportunity which brings research and clinical staff closer together for the benefit of patients in the hospital. The research topics will have a quick and direct impact on patients, and these benefits will continue into the NRC when it opens.

Professor Logan added: ‘Increasing research capacity and capability in nurses and allied health care professionals is one of our university’s priorities, so having a broad range of professionals winning the grants for these projects is very exciting.’

The research projects have been funded by the University of Nottingham and Cisco, via the NRC digital strategy team and through its country digital acceleration programme.

Author: Ian A McMillan
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