Nursing

The OU Nursing team includes academics and practitioners who undertake research into nursing and related healthcare topics. Our research broadly focuses on: professional education; the quality of nursing and healthcare provision and the experiences and perspectives of nurses, the multidisciplinary team, and patients/service users and carers.

We use a range of methodological approaches in our research including mixed methods, participatory, online and secondary analysis methods. Key areas of research include the role of online teaching and learning; the recruitment and regulation of nurses; the delivery of care in different settings (e.g. maternity and hospice care) and service users’ and carers’ experiences of living with acute or long-term conditions (e.g. diabetes, mental ill-health and dementia).

Entry requirements

Minimum 2:1 undergraduate degree (or equivalent) and an MA or research methods training at MA level (or equivalent). If you are not a UK citizen, you may need to prove your knowledge of English.

Current/recent research projects

• Experiences of nurse supervisors and assessors
• Nursing students in the practice learning environment with identifiable Specific Learning Difference (SpLD) Dyslexia
• Students on a distance learning nursing degree
• Clinical skills teaching by mentors of student nurses
• Application of MOOC as a business tool to improve recruitment of nursing students in higher education
• Use of action research to reduce the theory-action gap in nursing.
• The influence of registered nurses on nursing students’ learning in the clinical environment
• Education and health professionals working together in a school setting
• Student nurses’ feedback from mental health service users in practice
• Looking at inclusion

Potential supervisors

• Dr Geraldine Boyle
• Dr Rebecca Garcia
• Dr Gemma Ryan
• Dr Neil Summers
• Dr Naomi Watson

Fees and funding

PhD fees

Professional doctorate fees

Some of our research students are funded via The Grand Union Doctoral Training Partnership; others are self-funded.

For detailed information about fees and funding, visit Fees and studentships.

To see current funded studentship vacancies across all research areas, see Current studentships.

Links

• School of Health, Wellbeing and Social Care