Public engagement resources as part of a nurse’s PhD journey

Background: Better health and wellbeing can be achieved by research made for the community and with the community. For that, non-academic audiences need to understand and apply research findings into practice. This paper aims to share the experience of a nurse in developing public engagement resources to translate her PhD findings to the community. Methods: This paper draws from PhD research that looked at the challenges of young people leaving custody to access healthcare during the transition back to the community in Scotland. It is an ethnographic study conducted in partnership with a community-based organisation. The participatory observation and in-depth interviews with practitioners and young people supported the development of public engagement resources. Results: The PhD research findings lead to developing three initial resources: a comic, a video, and a leaflet. The resources are essential to disseminate the research findings to young people, practitioners, stakeholders and students. The resources show challenges faced by young people leaving custody when accessing healthcare services. They can be used to change stigmatised attitudes against young people when accessing service provision. Conclusions: Nurses researchers should be committed to developing public engagement resources for the community. These three specific resources can improve awareness of practitioners’ attitudes which can reinforce health inequalities. PhD supervisors and mentors are essential in guiding students to look for creative strategies to disseminate research findings for different audiences.