Implementation of the Chief Nursing Officer for England’s national strategy for nursing research in mental health service provider organisations: A mixed-methods study

Background: In 2021, the Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) for England launched the strategic plan for research with the aim of empowering nurses to lead, participate in, and deliver research. Aim and Objectives: To determine whether mental health service providers have engaged with the CNO's strategy, the extent to which they have developed research leadership roles for nurses, and to identify their related plans. Method: A convergent mixed‐methods (quantitative plus qualitative) study was conducted. Data were gathered from an online census survey of informants from English NHS mental health service provider organisations, freedom of information requests and web searches. Quantitative data were analysed descriptively, and qualitative data were analysed thematically. Results: Information was elicited regarding 40/51 relevant provider organisations, n = 14 from survey responses and n = 26 from Freedom of Information requests. In a subset of provider organisations, dedicated roles for nursing research leadership had been developed, but they lacked consistency in terms of focus, responsibilities and pay grade. We did not identify any specific nursing research strategies; organisation‐wide strategies generally covered all clinical professional groups. Discussion: The CNOs strategy has had limited influence on providers' research strategy developments. Some provider organisations have actively developed their plans to boost nursing research, but others need to increase their efforts to do likewise or risk missing out on the benefits that accrue to research‐active services, their staff, and service users. We make recommendations for future activity aimed at strengthening nursing research leadership in provider organisations. Relevance to Mental Health Nursing: Mental health nursing aspires to be an evidence‐based profession, but the contribution made by nurses to the evidence through the conduct and, particularly, the leadership of clinical research has lagged behind that of professional colleagues. Recent attempts to build capacity and capability for research in the mental health nursing workforce have had unclear take‐up and impact. This paper describes how one such initiative, the Chief Nursing Officer for England's strategy for nursing research, has been used in mental health service provider organisations in England.