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Blog posted by: Dr Julia Terry, academic lead for public and patient involvement programmes, Swansea University, 17 September 2018.

Dr Julia Terry discussed how her experience as a NICE Fellow enhanced her academic career

I remember feeling excited when I applied for a NICE Fellowship as I knew it would help me understand more about NICE, and encourage me to drive health improvements I am passionate about as an academic.

My experiences with NICE have far exceeded my expectations. Over my fellowship period 2015 to 2018 I have worked with a range of different teams at NICE, observed one guideline committee and one technical appraisal group and had excellent support from two advisors.

In my university role I teach mental health at undergraduate and postgraduate level. For my NICE Fellowship I chose to develop educational resources on depression which were rooted in the NICE guidelines and are taught to all our first year nursing students.

I was aware also of another NICE educational resource - the NICE student champion scheme which supports the use of NICE Evidence Search. The scheme has been a key part of my Fellowship, and with excellent support from NICE staff I have seen over 50 student champions train over 1000 undergraduate students from our nursing and medical schools. Seeing students develop their peer-teaching skills and confidence in digital literacy, as well as their knowledge on evidence-based practice was amazing.

One of my fellow predecessors started the All Wales NICE Liaison group. The group creates opportunities for Welsh health professionals to advance the NICE’s agenda in line with health and social care leads and government policy in Wales. I was pleased to be able to join this initiative, to link up NICE developments in Wales with my own progress around the NICE student champion scheme.

A NICE Fellowship requires working one day per month on projects of your choice, with your employer’s agreement. It has enabled me to drive health improvement primarily through increasing nursing students’ knowledge of NICE resources and opportunities. The Fellowship opportunity has increased my professional networks and I have been invited to give talks about NICE Evidence Search to professional groups.  

My experiences of the Fellowship has been very positive which is why I encourage others to get involved with NICE.  

Find out more about being a NICE Fellow here.

Find out more about being a NICE Scholar here.