What influences specialist palliative care nurses working in a community setting to engage with research?

The advanced nursing role was first seen in the UK in the mid-1990s (Gray, 2016). In the early years of the advanced nursing role, the UK Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting (predecessor to the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC)) did not set standards to avoid restricting the development and innovation of an emerging area of nursing practice (Gray, 2016). This led to a lack of clarity in relation to the scope of practice, training, qualifications and the skills required to undertake the role safely and effectively. Advanced nursing titles emerged in an unplanned way for similar roles being established by individual organisations in response to local need due to the absence of agreement from a regulatory body (Gray, 2016).

In the UK, palliative care nurses work at an advanced level and frequently hold the title of clinical nurse specialist (CNS). In general, the CNS has a more in-depth knowledge of a specific field of nursing care (Cooper et al, 2019). Much has been written on advanced nursing roles including their title, effectiveness and role preparation (Duffield et al, 2021). Several organisations developed frameworks to help clarify the scope of the advanced nursing role and its educational requirements to stakeholders including the Department of Health (Department of Health, 2010), Royal College of Nursing (RCN, 2018), International Council of Nursing (International Council of Nurses, 2019), and Health Education England (HEE, 2017). All the frameworks included an element of research as a key area of the CNS role.