A round up of all the upcoming training courses available, offered by Noclor NHS Research Office and Whittington Health Library, including Critical Appraisal Skills (Quantitative Research); Critical Appraisal Skills (Qualitative Research); Academic Writing and many more.
These training sessions are free and available to any member of staff who works for one of our partner trusts or organisations working in primary or wider care settings across North London.
Noclor hosted training sessions:
Critical Appraisal Skills (Quantitative Research)
The purpose of this workshop is to introduce critical appraisal, to describe the major features of quantitative research and to appraise a quantitative a research paper.
By the end of the workshop, delegates should have the confidence to read quantitative research papers critically and to identify their strengths and weaknesses.
The critical appraisal of quantitative research workshop provides you with an opportunity to:
- Know the anatomy of research paper
- Understand hierarchy of evidence and a range of study designs within it
- Learn about data collection and analysis
- Become familiar with different types of bias
- Understand the importance of setting of the research and recruitment of participants
- Revisit basic epidemiological and statistical concepts
Thursday 15th October, 10-11:30am
Critical Appraisal Skills (Qualitative Research)
The purpose of this workshop is to introduce critical appraisal, to describe the major features of qualitative research and to appraise a qualitative a research paper.
By the end of the workshop, delegates should have the confidence to read qualitative research papers critically and to identify their strengths and weaknesses.
The critical appraisal of qualitative research workshop provides you with an opportunity to:
- Know the anatomy of research paper
- Understand hierarchy of evidence and a range of study designs within it
- Learn about data collection and analysis
- Become familiar with different types of bias
- Understand the importance of setting of the research and recruitment of participants
- Revisit basic epidemiological concepts
- Understand how to work in groups to critically appraise a randomised controlled trial
Thursday 5th November, 10-11:30am
Training available with Whittington Health Library
The sessions are delivered on MS Teams. To book on to any of them please email us at whl@nhs.net or call us on 020 7288 3580
Noclor Programme: What the Library Can Do for Me - an Introduction to Library Services
In this introductory session you will find out how the Library can help your research interests, how it can help you deliver evidence based care, and how it can support your learning and development at work. The session covers using the Library space, joining and getting an NHS OpenAthens account, book and journal requests, the Library web site, KnowledgeShare (for regular subject alerts) and the NHS Knowledge and Library Hub.
Thursday 15th October 2026, 14:00 - 14:30
Thursday 26th November 2026, 11:30 - 12:00
Noclor Programme: Finding the Evidence (Literature Searching Skills)
Learn how to retrieve the research literature you are looking for by devising and executing a good search strategy using both keyword and subject heading searches. You will gain the skills to search the NHS Library and Knowledge Hub as well as primary research databases effectively by combining searches using AND/OR operators, refine your results using limits; and export, email, save your results.
Thursday 8th October 2026, 10:00 - 11:00
Thursday 5th November 2026, 11:00 - 12:00
NEW! Noclor Programme - Types of Research
Within an hour you will be introduced to the different branches of research, and different research methodologies that are used in healthcare, with recent examples highlighted.
Monday 26th October 2026, 10:30 - 11:30
Thursday 19th November 2026, 11:30 - 12:30
Noclor Programme: Quick-fire Critical Appraisal of QUANTITATIVE Research
Introduces the main concepts involved in critical appraisal of quantitative research, and discusses features of research papers using selected questions from the appropriate CASP checklist. The session covers basic statistical concepts necessary for understanding results.
Friday 9th October 2026, 14:00 - 15:00
Thursday 12th November 2026, 12:00 - 13:00
Noclor Programme: Quick-fire Critical Appraisal of QUALITATIVE Research
Learn how to understand key elements in the successful and accurate appraisal of a paper, discuss the features of qualitative research and the key terminology associated with it, and understand how to use a CASP checklist to critically appraise a qualitative research article.
Monday 5th October 2026, 11:30 - 12:30
Tuesday 3rd November 2026, 12:30 - 13:30
Noclor Programme: Academic Writing
In this session, you will learn to define the key concepts of a paper, make evidence-based arguments, and present your viewpoints critically and logically in academic writing, with opportunities to practice your new skills.
Friday 30th October 2026, 12:00 - 13:00
Noclor Programme: Getting into Research
In this one hour introductory session you will learn how you can get started with a research project, and about the opportunities available to nurses and AHPs in the NHS nationally and locally.
Tuesday 10th November 2026, 13:30 - 14:30
NEW! Noclor Programme: Writing for Publication
Within an hour you will learn the basic requirements of writing for scientific or professional journals, including structure and style guidance, plus an understanding of the publishing process.
Tuesday 13th October 2026, 13:00 - 14:00
NEW! Noclor Programme: Creating Posters for conferences
In an hour you will learn what's expected of posters at conferences or other professional occasions; get ideas for presenting your work in a graphic form, and hints and tips for producing a print or digital poster.
Monday 19th October 2026, 13:30 - 14:30
Noclor Programme: Reference Management
In half an hour you will learn what reference management software is, what programmes are freely available, know how to create a bibliography in Refworks and cite references in your work using it.
Friday 23rd October 2026, 14:00 - 15:00
Noclor Journal Club:
Join us in the library or online for our monthly Noclor Journal Club for Nurses and AHPs. In these sessions we'll go over an accessible, interesting paper (or something else...) as a group, discussing its strengths and weaknesses, and what it could mean for your practice. Call on 020 7288 3580 or email whl@nhs.net to book your place on any of the sessions.
This month: In honour of Black History Month, we'll be covering ‘Why I no longer get excited about Black History Month in the NHS’, an opinion piece from last year's Nursing Times that promises to spark debate!
The Noclor Journal Club will be meeting online via Teams and in-person in Whittington Health Library's meeting room (with snacks/refreshments!) to discuss this paper.
Wednesday 21st October, 2-3:30pm