69 ‘The importance of peer-support for clinical academics at great ormond street children’s hospital’

Over the last four years, ORCHID (the Centre for Outcomes and Experience Research in Children’s Health, Illness and Disability) at GOSH has had great success in supporting nurses, allied health professionals (AHPs) and a junior doctor to apply for clinical academic funding from a range of highly competitive schemes, including the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR). This support has included the running of an internship programme funded by the GOSH NIHR BRC, regular teaching, and knowledgeable and supportive academic supervisors. This has enabled each clinician to lead on research and make valuable contributions to patient care in their specialist fields. The process for individuals undertaking a PhD can be a challenging, and often lonely experience. The transition from expert clinician to novice researcher can be a shock. An important way to alleviate some of these challenges is to surround oneself with people who are enabling and supportive. Peer-support has proved to be an invaluable source of support for this growing group of multi-disciplinary researchers. This diverse group, made up of a dietician, family therapist, junior doctor, nurses, physiotherapists, radiographer, speech and language specialist, occupational therapist and an orthoptist, has created a WhatsApp group, held virtual and in-person, social evenings and discussion forums to allow the sharing of positive and negative experiences, dissemination of practical tips and provision of moral support. The group has created a non-threatening, respectful, safe environment and welcomes all clinical academics embarking on a PhD. This network of engaged, expert and motivated professionals is key to delivering world-leading patient outcomes and developing the GOSH research leaders of the future. Ensuring their success, using the peer support described, will help support the Trust’s aim of establishing a formal clinical academic career pathway for nurses and AHPs, as part of it becoming a research hospital.