Transforming the RMM: A case study in health sciences

Antonia Seymour from Wiley

There has been significant investment in digital transformation of book content in the health sciences. Antonia Seymour, VP and Publishing Director for Professional Practice and Learning at John Wiley and Sons, explained how they had developed the Royal Marsden Manual of Clinical Nursing Procedures (RMM) for the nursing community.

With the RMM, they are simultaneously publishing in 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0. The book is published against a background where the NHS is in a challenging environment. Hospital admissions are growing every day, there's an ageing population, patents have complex conditions, more people are waiting (and queuing) in A&E departments. Important to understand nursing requirements within that.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council states that nurses have the knowledge and skills for safe and effective practice without direct supervision. Nurses also have to keep knowledge and skills up to date throughout their working life. The RMM is designed to address these needs and pain points.

The Royal Marsden Trust is a Centre for Excellence for cancer. Wiley have a publishing partnership with them. RMM started out as an in-house manual of best practices. An astute editor suggested this could be useful more widely and that it should be published. It is now the nursing bible for clinical skills. Evolved over 30 years to be the market leader.

In 2004 after extensive research, they went into four different editions, in colour, in a pocket book to take round the ward, in a ring binder with laminated procedure cards. These may seem parochial now, but were all about portability on the ward. They now have the professional edition, student edition (full of pedagogical features), and a truly online edition which is increasingly favoured by the market, which includes a workflow tool. The success has been based on continuous refinement in response to research with nurses.

Market research is conducted with newly qualified nurses, experienced staff, mentors/preceptors of students and newly qualified nurses, ward managers and clinical governance nurses. It is a multi-million dollar product so they invest a lot. The market wants quick and easy answers to their question.

There are over 200 procedures (including hand washing) which has been tabulated online so you can get to equipment, procedure or medication part of it. All content is graded by level of evidence. They've made an incredibly google-like search on the home page. Customisable content is included so Trusts can clarify local policy, annotate procedures guidelines and support information to reflect local practice. The online edition is now contributing just over 60% of revenues. For hospitals and trusts is sold on a three year licence based on number of beds. In academic institutions, it's based on number of students.

Institutional sales team, roadshows, webinars, case study in journal, corporate marketing and telemarketing all tools used to sell and market the product. In the future they will continue with market research, look to expand the franchise, develop the online edition, continually update and hopefully include broader Wiley content.