The COVID-NURSE Trial

Information for Nurses and Clinical Teams at Research Sites

‘COVID-NURSE’ trial, funded by the National Institute for Health Research and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), is a nurse-led randomised controlled trial of a nursing guideline to meet the fundamental care needs of COVID-19 patients in hospital.

The guideline has been developed by nurses for nurses. It consists of multiple examples of practice innovations and learning from nurses who cared for patients with COVID-19 during the first wave of the pandemic.

We are evaluating the impact of this guideline on patient experience, care quality and clinical outcomes. We will also investigate the impact of using the protocol on nurses themselves.

The trial is happening in 18 hospitals across England and the devolved nations between October 2020 and March 2021.

What is in it for Trusts and clinical teams?

  1. The guideline has been developed by nurses for nurses. It consists of multiple examples of practice innovations and learning from nurses who cared for patients with COVID-19 during the first wave of the pandemic.
  2. The trial includes up to three hours of online training that can be set against professional revalidation and/or annual appraisals for registered nurses and health care support workers
  3. This training can be included in Trust CPD activity
  4. Nurses undertaking the training will join a national community of practice and be able to share ideas and innovations across different Trusts
  5. Excess Treatment Costs are budgeted in to allow backfill during the training
  6. If your Trust is randomised to the usual care arm, your nurses will still have access to the intervention materials – guideline and training programme – as soon as data collection has been completed, i.e. six weeks after you have recruited the first patient participant in your Trust.

Chief Investigator, Professor David Richards: ;

Trial Manager: Dr Jess Bollen

Participant Information Sheet:

PIS_Nurse_v2 2020-11-04