Purpose: Understanding why research and improvement matter

Research underpins every pillar of practice. As a ward manager, you sit at the intersection of evidence, practice and people. Even if you are not leading formal research, your role is to:

• Champion evidence-based practice in daily care
• Create the conditions for quality improvement (QI) to thrive
• Protect patients, support staff, and provide assurance to your organisation and regulators

Literacy: Building research literacy for everyday practice

Broadening understanding beyond clinical topics (to patient experience, wellbeing, communication and health promotion) supports better decisions and more compassionate care. Being research literate means:

• Understanding how evidence supports safe, effective care
• Knowing how research, audit and improvement link to service delivery
• Helping yourself and others recognise research activity in everyday work

Practice: Recognising research in everyday ward activity

Research and improvement happen at many levels. You’re most likely already doing research even if you don’t call it that.

• Read, review and use evidence (guidelines, journal articles, NICE updates, All Wales policies).
• Observe practice to identify patterns, variation, and areas for improvement.
• Collect routine ward data (audits, incidents, care bundle checks, patient feedback).
• Ask questions through quick surveys, conversations, or focused discussions with staff and patients.
• Test small changes using PDSA cycles to learn what works in real ward conditions.
• Analyse patient safety events to understand contributing factors and generate improvement ideas.
• Use reflective practice after clinical events or debriefs to explore learning.
• Work with research partners (Health and Care Research Wales, Improvement Cymru, library services, universities).
• Support formal studies by helping identify eligible patients or facilitating data collection.
• Benchmark performance against other wards or national standards to identify gaps.
• Evaluate outcomes to check whether changes improved safety, experience, or staff wellbeing.

Access more resources about digital literacy

Strategic action plan for building research capability for nursing midwifery and...

Publication Long Read

Leadership: Strengthening research and improvement

Quality Improvement is a systematic, evidence-driven approach to making care:

• Safer
• More effective
• More person-centred

Improvement Cymru offers a wide range of tools and resources to help explore and develop improvement in practice.

These four core responsibilities provide a practical framework to help you support safer care, better staff experience, and continuous service improvement at ward level.

1. Exposure
Make evidence, data and improvement activity visible and meaningful.

• Provide regular evidence spotlight: provide opportunity for staff to share updates and encourage conversations about new innovations they have seen or heard (e.g., NICE update, NMC, new technology, All Wales policy, safety learning, IPC compliance).
• Encourage attendance: ensure nurses have opportunity to discover new research/updates via link nurse roles, attending webinars. Encourage them to seek opportunities.
• Make data visible: a simple “ward quality board” (run charts for falls, pressure damage, IPC, med safety; staffing; patient feedback). Use colour cues (green/amber/red) to demonstrate status against targets.
• Bring research to the bedside: invite Research/Improvement Cymru leads, library services, and practice development nurses to ward/team meetings.
• Encourage teams: ensure teams are aware of clinical research going on in your department.

2. Inclusion
Create psychologically safe, co-produced environments where every voice matters.

• Use multidisciplinary teams approach discussions and include improvement as a standing agenda item (e.g. chat about things that are either working well on the ward or need improvement, service improvement ideas).
• Promote Just Culture, fostering a supportive, no‑blame debriefs after incidents; focus on systems and contributory factors.
• Actively invite challenge (i.e. “what are we missing?”, “where can we improve”) and thank people for challenge.
• Use real-time comments and patient experienceto shape the next test of change. If possible, involve a patient rep in any improvement projects.
• Communicate decisions in plain, accessible language, ensuring leaflets, boards and decisions are explained in plain language; encourage shared decision‑making.
• Encourage research, ensuring you are familiar with the level of research related skills in your team’s job descriptions and encourage and recognise activity in these areas in PADRs.

3. Culture
Embed evidence-based practice and continuous learning into everyday routines.

• Call out variance and encourage staff to do the same: challenge outdated or unsafe practices; reinforce standardised, evidence‑based pathways.
• Align to standards: embed All Wales policies (e.g., IPC, medicines, safeguarding), NICE guidance and local procedures into daily work.
• Standard work: use care bundles, checklists and SOPs (falls, pressure risk, IPC, medication checks, SBAR).
• Small tests, fast feedback: run PDSA cycles (one bay/one shift), share results next week, and adopt/adapt/abandon.
• Use ward data: incidents (LFPSE), audits, complaints, and compliments drive priorities.
• Close the loop: “we saw X → we changed Y → now Z has improved.” Publish run charts to staff and patients.
• Celebrate research: Explicitly value the role of research and improvement by celebrating it.

4. Careers & Infrastructure
Build long-term capability and sustainability.

• Distributed leadership: nominate champions (IPC, medicines, falls, patient experience, research link). Rotate roles annually for development.
• Personal development plans and appraisals: Align objectives to ward priorities; include at least one QI/research learning goal. Set protected learning time.
• Learning access: signpost Improvement Cymru resources, HEIW offers, Health and Care Research Wales offers, e-learning, library services, and QI‑learning, library services, and QI training.
• Protected time: as much as possible provide time for active participation in research and improvement projects as this will benefit workforce and patient care in the long term. Schedule it on the roster.
• Escalate & advocate: present resource gaps (equipment, digital tools, study time) with data and risk/benefit framing to senior forums.
• Encourage curiosity: foster interest in formal opportunities for research, innovation and improvement such as fellowships and scholarships. These can be through an organisation such as HEIW or Health and Care Research Wales or through the nursing professional bodies and organisations such as RCN or FNF.

Webpage last updated on: 23rd May 2026