Nurse-led research and innovation is key to improving health experiences and outcomes and reducing health inequalities. Clinical academic training programmes for nurses to develop research and innovation skills alongside continued development of their clinical practice are becoming increasingly established at national, regional and local levels. Though widely supported, geographical variation in the range and scope of opportunities available remains. It is imperative that clinical academic opportunities for nurses continue to grow to ensure equity of access and opportunity so that the potential of nurse-led clinical academic research to improve quality of care, health experience and health outcomes can be realised. In this paper, we describe and report on clinical academic internship opportunities available to nurses to share internationally, a range of innovative programmes currently in operation across the UK.Examples of some of the tangible benefits for patients, professional development, clinical teams and NHS organisations resulting from these clinical academic internships are illustrated. Information from local evaluations of internship programmes was

The NHS Multi-Professional Framework for Advanced Clinical Practice in England (Health Education England, 2017) sets out an expectation that all health and care professionals working at advanced clinical practice (ACP) level demonstrate a range of standard clinical academic capabilities across four pillars: clinical practice, leadership and management, education, and research. To achieve this, practitioners and employers need to work collaboratively to develop these capabilities and recognise how they contribute to improving the quality of care. However, the culture, leadership values and infrastructure of clinical practice environments limit opportunities for such clinical academic development (van Oostveen et al., 2017), resulting in a strong clinical bias amongst advanced practitioners with limited focus on research and leadership. To address this, we propose Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Professional (NMAHP) groups require specific development programmes that combine an academic, research and quality improvement experience grounded within clinical practice roles. In this article, we describe Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Clinical Improvement Scholarship (CIS), a twelve-month programme combining work on a practice-based quality improvement project alongside education for leadership, research and quality improvement. Early indicators from the first and second cohorts suggest a significant increase in research and leadership knowledge with 'scholars' reporting increased commitment and confidence in utilising research evidence to improve care. Line managers also suggest a notable rise in professional confidence in the delivery of care and organisational competency. We therefore conclude that the CIS programme has impacted positively on professional capabilities and clinical quality within the Trust.