Carrying out this research has enabled both partners to benefit from the collaboration. It provides the University with an opportunity to forge links with a professional accrediting body in teh field of nursing and midwifery, and the College with a new experience in undertaking a prestigious programme of research. This has taken place in the context o f a close relationship between the University and Bradford and Airedale College of Health, formalised in 1992. Apart from the commitment by both institution to develop and implement a joint strategy for research, characterised in this project, the association extends to the sharing of facilities and the University's validation of degrees earned by BACH students.
The two-year project, which is intended to produce recommendations which will inform future English National Board policy in relation to the development of nursing and midwifery education, comprises a number of stages. The research team of Kate Gerrish, Charles Husband and Jennifer Mackenzie have already carried out a review of literature and a national questionnaire survey of institutions providing nursing and midwifery education. This is being complemented by an in-depth study of a number so educational institutions and related clinical contexts, in order to provide a cumulative understanding of curricula and practice initiatives which are seeking to prepare nurses and midwives for working in multi-ethnic Britain.
Already the research has indicated a diversity of approaches and curricula content within current programmes of education. Whereas in the past there has been a tendency to regard problems of communication as the major issue within multi-cultural health care, the research has identified a growing recognition of the complexity of the issues that impact upon ethnic minorities' experience of health care. The project is identifying examples of initiatives in both curricula content and in the provision of practice placements which will inform the recommendations for future innovation. This is being complemented by a study of ethnic minority communities' experience of health care.
The project has attracted national attention, with, for example, the team being invited to present a paper on developing a research partnership at the English National Board's research conference in November, and with the publication of a bibliography documenting literature in the field. Interim findings from the research have already been disseminated through conference papers and seminars, and further analyses will be made available through academic journals and a book.