An ethnographic study of the knowledge mobilisation (KM) activities of advanced nurse practitioners (ANPs): PhD

My research study is exploring how advanced nurse practitioners (ANPs) mobilise knowledge when discharging patients with long-term conditions from the Emergency Department (ED).

I’m using an ethnographic approach, including observations and interviews to collect data from ANPs and other clinicians who are involved in knowledge mobilisation. I will spend about 6 months regularly visiting the ED, looking at the processes of how knowledge is chosen, understood, shared, and applied by ANPs in discharge decisions.

My background as a primary care ANP has been useful in understanding and interpreting the literature and initial data. I have continued working as a nurse 1-2 days a month to keep my clinical skills and maintain a clinical perspective in interpreting my data.

I have taken advantage of several opportunities to disseminate my research:

• I presented my proposal at the Cofsoc (Coffee and Sociology) group in ScHARR in January 2016.
• I was invited to present my study design to the Emergency Medicine Research in Sheffield (EMRIS) group in Feb 2016.
•  I also gave an oral summary of my PhD in ‘Gone in 60 seconds’ at the ScHARR PGR conference in May 2016.

• I presented my PhD at the Knowledge Utilization colloquium in North Wales in July 2016 and was awarded first prize for the most innovative presentation.
• My abstract was accepted for a poster presentation at the BSA Medsoc conference in Birmingham, which I attended in Sept 2016.
• I have written blogs for the website FindaPhD.com, focusing on my experience of commencing PhD study as a mature student (August and November 2016).