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Details of our PhD in nursing and PhD in midwifery in Brighton, UK.

Research in the department embraces a diverse range of qualitative, quantitative and participatory methods and includes use of the arts, participatory and new methodologies with projects often drawing on personal professional or experiential perspectives.

We have particular strengths in phenomenology and lifeworld research, action research, ethnography and grounded theory and application of new theory relevant to care and well-being. Our research spans the range of age groups; we are undertaking distinctive research in children, critical care, e-technologies and health, inequalities, as well as growing older and living well in older age, gender and old age, and exploring well-being potential within a wide range of illness and long-term conditions.

As a PhD student in nursing or midwifery you will be contributing throughout your studies to a research portfolio that has major impact on understanding the experiences of health, illness, the meaning of care and people’s involvement in this and the provision and the systems that support it.

Staff and PhD students have built  a community of learning which fosters research into aspects that include:

• specific clinical practice in contexts spanning acute, primary and community as well as secondary care
• effects of patterns of care
• a diverse range of health and long term or illness conditions
• the midwife/family relationship
• midwifery practice
• exercise in pregnancy
• the midwifery workforce
• historical perspectives on nursing and midwifery. 
• community-based nursing
• mental health nursing
• paediatric nursing
• social care-related care across statutory, NHS and/or third sector services.

Research supervisors for your PhD research programme

You will benefit from research supervision comprising two or maximum three members of academic staff. To ensure the right mix of expertise alongside specialists in occupational therapy and occupational science, one of the supervisors might come from the wider School of Education, Sport and Health Sciences or from an external expert for example from within the community of practicing nurses or midwives.

You will identify your primary potential supervisor for your doctorate in physiotherapy from the early stages of application and they will usually then support you throughout your programme of study, helping you find any additional support to carry out your research, guiding your learning of rigorous research methods and preparing you for the next stage of your career.

You should consider the staff listed at the foot of the page and create a short draft research proposal identifying your suitability for supervision from that person's research specialism.

Research training and support

PhD students in nursing and midwifery are offered a range of developmental opportunities to help challenge and broaden their academic and professional thinking. You will have the opportunity to network with other doctoral students and staff across the university to share ideas and expertise. You will be supported with conference presentation preparation, with research planning and publication activities as well as grant applications and network-building, for example by joining our Public Health and Health Conditions Research Excellence Group. Whatever the focus of your PhD project, you will be able to draw on research approaches from a variety of related fields. 

As a member of the Brighton Doctoral College, you will benefit from regular opportunities on a training programme designed to support postgraduate researchers at all stages of the PhD and help them achieve their career goals. Attendance at appropriate workshops within this programme is encouraged, as is contribution to the various seminar series hosted by the school and the annual Postgraduate Research Festival. Academic and technical staff also provide more subject-specific training.

Resources for nursing PhD and midwifery PhD students

The ¹ú²ú°É¾«Æ·¸£Àû of Brighton offers interdisciplinary study through a range of allied health and healthcare practitioners. We pride ourselves on conducting research within the context of professional practice and our students join us from various stages in their careers or at the point of a career change. 

As well as academic staff experienced in the profession, you will benefit from access to internationally-linked research resources, including a contemporary range of electronic resources via the university’s Online Library, as well as the physical book and journal collections housed within campus libraries. The library services are connected to national and international collections and students also have the option of inter-library loans.

Research Excellence Framework

The ¹ú²ú°É¾«Æ·¸£Àû of Brighton had an outstanding performance in the Research Excellence Framework (REF2021) and its earlier iterations. Research across allied health professions, dentistry, nursing and pharmacy demonstrated an 87 per cent world-leading (4*), environment for research, with over 80 per cent of its submitted outputs and impact studies judged to be in the world-leading or internationally excellent categories (4* and 3*).

The School of Education, Sport and Health Sciences

Students have a base on the ¹ú²ú°É¾«Æ·¸£Àû of Brighton's Falmer Campus where PhD students from a range of health disciplines can meet and exchange ideas. This is where our disciplinary facilities and our supervisory staff can normally be found. 

As a Nursing PhD student or Midwifery PhD student you will take an active role in a range of intellectual and social activities within the school. Students are encouraged to meet for informal discussions and supportive activities and on an annual basis for research conference/celebrations. We value all personal input from researchers and those interested in becoming researchers, and those who are interested to find out more about research and share ideas and knowledge. 

The academic profile of this part of the university brings healthcare academic professionals together including midwives, nurses, physiotherapists, podiatrists, occupational therapists, sports scientists and osteopaths. We also collaborate closely with staff from other parts of the university, for example, Brighton and Sussex Medical School. We have professional networks and collaborate with departments in other universities together with clinicians and managers locally.

You and your fellow postgraduate researchers will have the opportunity to attend and present at research seminar sessions, and to integrate with researchers over a range of relevant specialisms. You may find closely aligned researchers in one of the university's Centres of Research and Knowledge Exchange Excellence (COREs) or Research Excellence Groups (REGs), including the Public Health and Health Conditions Research Excellence Group.

The school is proud of a long-standing strength in professional practice education, with accreditation of our taught courses by regulatory and professional bodies including the Nursing and Midwifery Council, the Health and Care Professions Council and the Chartered Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences. 

Our leafy Falmer Campus brings researchers together from across all aspects of health science and healthcare.

PhD supervisors in nursing and midwifery