Sarah is a Prison Service Advanced Practitioner (AP). Her role involves addressing a broad spectrum of healthcare needs in the prison environment and she is now the Clinical Lead for Substance Misuse. She supports staff decision-making, leads quality improvement initiatives, and develops policies to align healthcare delivery with best practices.
Advanced Practice MSc and its Impact
Sarah’s Advanced Practice MSc supported developing and bridging theoretical knowledge within practice. The MSc provided training in research methods, critical analysis, and quality improvement via dissertation while building confidence to utilise research skills. This inspired Sarah’s focus on further developing prison healthcare research, a frequently overlooked area.
The research project
Drawing on leadership and communication skills (also developed during her MSc), Sarah collaborated with stakeholders, including an academic supervisor and prison colleagues to design a project. Her qualitative study aims to explore perspectives on healthcare delivery, identify barriers, and suggest improvements to ensure equity in healthcare standards between prisons and the wider community. Sarah’s research proposes to explore prisoner-patient and prison officer experiences of healthcare accessibility, emphasising the need to amplify prisoners and prison officers’ voices.
Initiation of the study
This project was sparked by a research event hosted by the South West Faculty for Advancing Practice. Sarah’s proposed project secured funding for transcription and support and oversight from an academic mentor. and secured funding for transcription and support / oversight from an academic mentor.
Project highlights
A highlight for Sarah was the positive feedback she received about the project from the National Ethics Committee. During a review meeting, the committee sought clarification on certain points before submission approval. The proposal was praised for addressing a critical gap in healthcare research. This validation reinforced her commitment to the project and bolstered her confidence to undertake future studies. Sarah also gained deeper appreciation for the thoroughness of the ethics process, which she now views as essential for ensuring research credibility.
Project challenges
While the project could have focused solely on staff perspectives, Sarah prioritised inclusion of prisoner voices, recognising their importance in improving services. This required formal ethics approval.
While the MSc provided a strong foundation, Sarah encountered the real-world challenge of navigating a formal ethics approval process. She was required to submit many iterations of the national Integrated Research Application System (IRAS) form suffering delays due to organisational resource constraints, and revisions to meet ethics standards. Alongside work-based support, Sarah found it beneficial to have regular meetings with her academic supervisor (Dr Richard Keers, The University of Manchester Senior Clinical Lecturer in Pharmacy) who provided support and guidance.
Anticipated benefits
The study seeks to enhance understanding of healthcare accessibility in prisons and provide actionable insights for better service delivery to this often-underserved population. This may help reduce inefficiencies and cost savings. Although initially small in scale, the project aims to provide quality improvement and inspire further research or larger-scale studies. By fostering collaboration between prisoners and staff, Sarah hopes to drive change, benefitting both patients and the prison system.
Future steps and advice
Using leadership, communication, clinical, and academic skills developed during her Advanced Practice MSc, Sarah aims to help create a fairer and more effective prison healthcare system. With national ethical approval secured, the next step is to conduct the research and prepare for journal publication.
For Advanced Practitioners considering similar projects, Sarah offers key advice:
• Value your perspective: As an Advanced Practitioner, your academic and clinical insights can significantly enrich the research literature.
• Prepare for the ethics process: Allocate more time than anticipated for completing ethics paperwork and be prepared for multiple revisions.
• Stay resilient: Challenges are inevitable when engaging with new processes, but persistence and a clear focus on your goals can help you overcome obstacles and make research part of your day job.
Sarah’s case study shows how advanced practitioners can drive impactful, patient-centred research while playing a key role in contributing to new evidence and bridging healthcare gaps. This highlights long-term value of advanced practice MSc education for individual development and ongoing systemic improvements.
Read more advanced practice case studies from the South West region here