The shortage of critical care nurses is currently a global issue impacting costs and quality of patient care.

In nursing literature, the phrase 'theory-practice gap' is widely used without common definition or description of its underlying concept. This review paper presents a concept analysis using Rodgers (2000) evolutionary process to define and clarify the concept of the theory-practice gap as part of a doctoral study. In so doing it provides a deeper understanding of the concept to enable its consistent application within nurse education. A theoretical definition is developed, the data search that was undertaken is described and a discussion of the attributes, antecedents and consequences is provided. We conclude by offering, a model case, which is employed to illustrate the concept.

Findings of our study support the need to develop an appropriate assessment tool for pressure injury patients in the community to enable healthcare professionals and patients to recognize and manage pressure injury-related pain effectively.

Health care professionals need to take account of each patient's personal assessment of their own breathlessness and how this is having an effect on their life and ability to undertake activities of daily living. Self-care management strategies need to be developed so that subtle changes can be assessed by the patient and reviewed by the healthcare professional to avoid hospitalisation and increased mortality risks.

Aims and objectives To review interventions and strategies designed to progress UK clinical academic career pathways in nursing and identify barriers and facilitators to aid wider implementation. Background For over a decade, the UK political agenda has promoted the entry of nurses into clinical academic roles. Partnerships between the National Health Service and academia are known to increase nursing recruitment, retention and quality of care. However, there remains a lack of nurses working in these partnership roles. Design A systematised review was conducted. An electronic database search was carried out in PubMed, CINAHL, the British Nursing Database and PsychInfo for articles published between September 2006 to June 2020. A narrative approach to data synthesis was used, and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta‐Analyses guidelines were followed. Results Ten papers were included in the review. The authors reported a range of programmes, pathways and toolkits. Pathway outcome measures included numbers of nurses recruited onto clinical academic programmes, clinical academic programmes completed, nursing research outputs, impact on clinical practice and impact on nursing recruitment. Barriers and facilitators to pathway development included funding, clinical and research time constraints, infrastructure, strong and strategic clinical academic leadership and effective partnership working. The quality of the included studies was mixed; more high‐quality, evidence‐based programmes need to be developed and rigorously evaluated. Conclusions The findings can inform nursing clinical academic research pathway development internationally, by identifying key drivers for success. Sustained and cohesive implementation of clinical academic research pathways is lacking across the UK. Relevance to Clinical Practice Strong, strategic leadership is required to enable progression of clinical academic nursing research pathway opportunities. Clinical nursing practitioners need to collaborate with external partners to enable development of clinical academic pathways within the nursing profession; this can lead to improvements in patient care and high‐quality clinical outcomes.

ObjectivesThe study aim was to explore experiences of patients with pleural mesothelioma of follow-up care in three National Health Service (NHS) Trusts to develop recommendations for practice.DesignThe study design was qualitative and comprised three interlinked phases: a documentary analysis, interviews and consultation meetings. Altheide and Johnson’s Analytic Realism theoretical framework guided the thematic data analysis process.SettingThe study was conducted in three NHS Trusts in South England. Two were secondary care settings and the third was a tertiary centre.ParticipantsThe secondary care trusts saw 15–20 patients with new mesothelioma per year and the tertiary centre 30–40. The tertiary centre had a designated mesothelioma team. Twenty-one patients met the inclusion criteria: >18 years, mesothelioma diagnosis and in follow-up care. Non-English speaking participants, those unable to provide written informed consent or those whom the clinical team felt would find participation too distressing were excluded. All participants were white, 71% were 70–79 years old and 71% were men. Three consultation meetings were conducted with key stakeholders including mesothelioma nurse specialists, patients with mesothelioma, carers and local clinical commissioning group members.Main outcome measuresSpecific outcomes were to gain a detailed understanding of mesothelioma follow-up care pathways and processes and to develop coproduced recommendations for practice.ResultsMesothelioma pathways were not always distinct from lung cancer care pathways. All trusts provided follow-up information and resources but there was varied information on how to access local support groups, research or clinical trial participation. Five themes were developed relating to people; processes; places; purpose and perception of care. Coproduced recommendations for improving mesothelioma follow-up pathways were developed following the consultation meetings.ConclusionsThis study has developed recommendations which identify the need for patients with pleural mesothelioma to access consistent, specialist, streamlined mesothelioma care, centred around specialist mesothelioma nurses and respiratory consultants, with input from the wider multidisciplinary team.

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