Leading nursing researcher to be director of new RCN institute

A respected expert on nursing workforce issues and safe staffing research has been appointed as the first head of a new section within the Royal College of Nursing devoted to academia and education.

Professor Jane Ball has been recruited as the inaugural director of the RCN Institute of Nursing Excellence. She will start her new role at the college on 15 July.

She is currently professor of nursing workforce and policy at the University of Southampton, having joined in 2014 from the National Nursing Research Unit at King’s College London.

“The work of the institute can give hope to nursing staff by enabling them to see a way to marshal evidence”

Jane Ball

Her research there has focused on how features of nursing employment and deployment, such as staffing levels and shift patterns, impact on quality of care, patient outcomes and nursing staff.

Professor Ball is an RCN fellow, a former RCN policy adviser and is well known as a strong advocate for safety-critical nurse-to-patient ratios.

The creation of the institute was announced in June 2022 at the RCN’s annual conference. The RCN’s ambition is for it to act as a centre of excellence for education, learning, research and policy.

The RCN has previously said the institute will collaborate with universities to progress nursing research, offer the college’s own professorships and fund PhD programmes for nursing staff.

The institute will be split into five academies, focusing on leadership, practice, workforce, international and activism.

It will mark the re-establishment of the RCN having its own education institute. Degrees were offered by the RCN Institute for Advanced Nursing Education from 1987.

The previous institute operated in collaboration with the University of Manchester and later with the University of London and the University of Surrey. However, it was later closed down by the college.

Speaking on her appointment, Professor Ball said: “The RCN has recognised the real challenges nursing faces and wants to respond with what we can learn from the evidence, applying that to progress the profession through the work of the institute and its five academies.

“I’ve spent a lot of time understanding what happens when staffing isn’t right and seeing the downsides on individual nursing staff of not being able to deliver care well,” she said.

“The work of the institute can give hope to nursing staff by enabling them to see a way to marshal evidence to help them and help the profession.”

She added: “My role leading the institute will be to bring together its five academies to help the RCN ensure there’s evidence and critical thinking underpinning each of its areas of activity.”

The RCN’s chief nursing officer and deputy chief executive, Professor Nicola Ranger, described the new institute as a “thinktank through which we’ll deliver our aspirational vision for nursing”.

She said: “I’m delighted to welcome Jane to the RCN in this crucial role, which will see us navigate and progress the nursing profession in new ways.

“The institute will bring together different parts and functions of the RCN,” she said. “Each academy has its own focus with the collective aim of supporting RCN members to have bold hearts, curious minds, and be brilliant people providing outstanding care.

“Through the institute, we’ll support members to be strong advocates for patients and colleagues, and brave leaders in innovation and research both nationally and internationally,” she said.