Nurse/Patient Methotrexate Consultation
Research type
Research Study
Full title
An exploration of the Nurse/Patient consultation when giving information about Methotrexate
IRAS ID
250427
Contact name
David Walker
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 5 months, 1 days
Research summary
Education of patients before starting drugs like Methotrexate is essential in order to involve them in the decision to take the drug and to take them safely and effectively. This education is given by nurses across the country every day. We wish to study this education to understand the process by which the nurses learn to deliver it and the nature of the interaction. In our first study, we developed a national questionnaire which showed that whilst nurses are relatively confident in their role as methotrexate educators, it takes around a year to achieve this and they do not have standardized training to carry this out. Most nurses learn these skills on the job. 6 semi-structured interviews which we conducted in the earlier study revealed that using booklets and prompts was important during the consultation process to "keep them [the nurses] on track". It was not obvious whether patients were given the opportunity to ask questions or whether the nurse was checking to determine if the patient understood the information given. We therefore believe that video-recording 10 consultations will produce much richer information about the learning experience for both nurse and patient, and examine more closely the communication between nurse and patient. We aim to use the findings of this small project along with the earlier work to develop further research and eventually develop a learning package to standardize this education on a national level.
REC name
London - Brent Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/LO/0450
Date of REC Opinion
8 Apr 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion