20th December 2001

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The University of Ulster is spearheading a drive to revolutionise the way patients are cared for in hospitals.

Heading the initiative is Professor Brendan McCormack, Professor of Nursing Research at the University of Ulster and Director of Nursing Research and Practice Development at the Royal Group.

Professor McCormack has also been elected Chair of the Practice Development Forum (PDF), a body charged with co-ordinating the way health care is delivered throughout the UK.

He said: "Essentially we want to keep up the momentum to modernise health services. The PDF has a large multi-disciplinary membership, although it is mainly concerned with the way nurses work in hospitals and other healthcare settings."

He added: "We want to ensure that healthcare focuses on the needs of patients and we are also concerned that nurses become more active in research. We want to build more meaningful partnerships between places like the University of Ulster and clinical areas so that research is relevant to what nurses do on the wards. That means translating research papers from the language of academics into terms that can be easily understood by those delivering patient care."

Professor McCormack said efforts are being made to make hospitals more user friendly. "We want to get rid of traditional barriers like set visiting times and the way information about patients is recorded. We are also looking at methods of improving the way health professionals like nurses work. This process of change is underway in about 10 wards at the Royal which include several different specialties".

One initiative being proposed is the recruitment of retired people to advise medical staff on the care needs of older patients. The retired people would be teamed up with health care professionals to draw up new patient-focused ways of delivering health care by cutting through the NHS red tape and medical jargon.

Professor McKenna, Head of School of Nursing at UU is delighted with this initiative. "Since
Professor McCormack took up post at the UU and RGH he has introduced a number of
projects that have improving patient care at their core. I have no doubt that this current initiative will have the necessary positive ripple effect across the health care team".

The nursing department at the University of Ulster received a rating of 4 in the recent RAE research quality benchmarking exercise, making it the top nursing research unit in Ireland and one of the leading units in the UK.

For further information, please contact:

Press Office Department of Communication and Development
Telephone: 028 9036 6178
Email: pressoffice@ulster.ac.uk