Clinical Academic Internship

Working with NHS England and University Hospital Southampton NHS Trust this one year internship programme aims to build research capacity across the pharmacy workforce. A band 7/8 pharmacist will be trained in research methodologies and use this training to develop a research proposal for execution at Southampton Hospital

The focus of the work looked at why patients with substance misuse problems discharge themselves more frequently than other patient populations. Limited evidence was found to the reasons behind early discharge but exploratory synthesis of the literature has shown three things contribute to self discharge. These are: Stigma; poor management of pain relief and withdrawal; and the restrictive nature of their hospital stay. From this work, we will be looking to see how policy and practice at Southampton hospital can be modified to mitigate these factors that contribute to self discharge