This is such an exciting post for me to be writing! I recently found out that a paper which I co-authored whilst I was a student had been published in the International Journal of Palliative Nursing. It was actually published in August 2020, but somehow I managed to entirely forget about it until now.
The opportunity to co-author this paper came at the end of my first year at Oxford Brookes. There was a programme named INTALECA (Incubating Nursing Talent: An Early Career Approach) running which I was approached to be a part of. The highest graded first years across Adult, Children's and Mental Health nursing were selected and informed about this pathway, which could lead to research experience and publication, with the potential to progress to a PhD. I signed up and was allocated Helen as my research mentor near the end of 2nd year.
Helen was absolutely incredible as a mentor. She presented a few studies to me that she was working on to me and I elected to join the above study as a collaborator with Sue and Dan, both lecturers at Brookes.
The actual study had taken place a few years prior, looking at patients with heart failure's experiences in a pilot cardiac rehab programme held in a hospice. Pre and post intervention, which took place in 2 cohorts, patients were interviewed and asked about their experiences, as well as filling in quantitative scales such as the Minnesota Living with Heart Failure questionnaire. These interviews had then been transcribed but the study had run out of steam as heart failure had slightly fallen out of favour in publications- things tend to have life cycles and if the topic is in favour, you're much more likely to be accepted for publication.
The first step was identifying what type of analysis and write up would best suit the study. Being a feasibility study, we decided that a qualitative analysis would be most suitable with reference to the fact that the study was mixed methods. Next was to decide which journal we wanted to publish in. Each journal has different criteria for word counts and other formatting information, so this was important to ascertain prior to starting writing. We chose the International Journal of Palliative Nursing, as they had recently published similar studies and had a good impact factor (0.91- this figure is calculated from the number of citations and citeable items from the previous 2 years). The word limit was 3000, so we divided up the work and assigned a section each to write for the 4 of us.
Having only ever studied thematic analysis for a research methods module in 2nd year, I was suddenly faced with coding 12 transcripts, each around 3 pages long, and then writing up an analysis. I read Braun and Clarke's 2006 guidance about 1000 times trying to get my head around it, and eventually managed to knuckle down and get through it. I read each transcript, then re-read and highlighted any key points. Another reading, and this time I assigned a code to each point that I had highlighted. I then grouped codes into subthemes, then grouped subthemes together to form 4 overarching themes. It took a long time, but was surprisingly satisfying to see it all come together.
I wrote up my ideas and the team came together again to discuss. We went through the themes and adjusted or refined some of the points, alongside reading the introduction and background, methodology and discussion sections. We all went away and made some edits, before coming together again to put the whole article together. We reshuffled roles and I ended up writing the introduction alongside my initial analysis, which was (to be honest) chopped and changed beyond recognition from my initial work... a decision for the better, for sure.
We then had to submit it to the journal and wait for their assessment. The paper was initially rejected and sent back with corrections. After a bit of back and forth, the paper was accepted for double-blind peer review and then publication.
The edited paper was published in August 2020's issue- volume 26, issue 6!
I feel truly lucky to have my name alongside such great lecturers and researchers, and even more lucky to have been able to have a paper published whilst still a student. I really hope I'm able to build on this momentum and get some other publications to my name soon, and potentially even run a study of my own to be lead author on. A girl can dream!!!
I've decided not to pursue the PhD route at this stage. In terms of my ICU career it would've been really difficult to balance being a new starter in ICU with a 5 year commitment of a part time PhD. It remains something that I'd love to explore further in the future, when I'm more settled in my clinical practice and can write and defend a thesis on something I'm truly passionate about.
References-
Walthall, H., Roberts, C., Butcher, D., Schutz, S. (2020) 'Patients' experiences of attending an adapted cardiac rehabilitation programme for heart failure in a day hospice' in International Journal of Palliative Nursing. 26(6), pp. 292-300.
Braun, V., Clarke, V. (2006) 'Using thematic analysis in psychology' in Qualitative Research in Psychology. 3(2), 77-101.
Nowell, L., Norris, J., White, D., Moules, N. (2017) 'Thematic analysis: striving to meet the trustworthiness criteria' in International Journal of Qualitative Methods. 16(1).
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