Department of Nursing and Midwifery
Research
Public Health
The Public Health Research Group is part of the Improving Health Outcomes Programme.The group covers public health and primary care research through local, national and international activity. Public health is a remarkably large umbrella term for work that ranges from clinical lab studies, through health service research to epidemiology. Our group has a particular focus on the role and impact of what may broadly be termed 'public health nursing and midwifery', primary care nursing and how patients, users, communities and the wider public are engaged with these disciplines.
The Public Health Research Group's focus and approach is underpinned by:
- The need to promote public health and tackle health inequalities
- The need to work in partnership with people and communities
These two key drivers in health and social policy were emphasised at the consensus conference on new nursing roles in Scotland.
Themes
The research of the group is focused on the continuum that covers patients, health service users and communities - be they geographically, disease or environmentally based. We are interested in exploring how nursing, midwifery and other health professionals may or do provide treatment, care and prevention to these groups in clinical and physical environments. We are especially interested in action research approaches that engage patients and communities with regard to the public health agenda. This can be demonstrated by our projects that are investigating or have investigated:
- intermediate care pathways in primary and social service sectors linked to health professional and public perceptions of service delivery;
- treating vulnerable user groups such as drug users with health problems relating to tissue viability;
- impacts of health promotion campaigns for the public on health professional working;
- impacts of crofting and work on community health and health care delivery in rural areas;
- role of nurses, midwives and other health professionals in addressing environmental health problems and patient and family needs for instance in the context of asbestos-related diseases, HP or cancers;
- participatory action research - lay epidemiology - to explore causes of diseases in rural communities and with patient groups;
- history of public health;
- review of the effectiveness of interventions aimed at changing health outcomes through changing knowledge, attitudes and behaviour;
- exercise and health;
- review of the effectiveness of mass media interventions which both encourage quit attempts and reinforce current and recent attempts to quit smoking.
Membership
The Group has a loose membership which includes nurses, midwives, an AHP, and three social science researchers - some of whom come from outwith the University. Several staff in addition to holding nursing and midwifery qualifications also hold public health qualifications and social science qualifications.
There is a core departmental membership of 6 full-time staff. The group currently contains 6 staff with academic research roles, a senior teaching fellow who is a researcher, a teaching fellow who contributes to research and currently two full time research fellows.
Academic staff also hold honorary clinical contracts and work as practitioners within the Scottish health service: for instance in Grampian, Glasgow and Clyde, Forth Valley and Lothian NHS Boards. There are also several PhD students working with members of staff in the group.
In addition, the group collaborates with other research groups within the Department and with other departments, notably the Institute of Education, Departments of Natural Sciences and Management & Organisation. Several staff are engaged in research and related consultancy work with scientific, community and commercial organisations.
Methodologies
The group draws on appropriate research methods in its research work, usually mixed methods. The group has expertise in qualitative and quantitative methods, in assessing clinical interventions for vulnerable groups (for instance families with mental health challenges or with drug users) and in quality assurance. The group also has a growing interest in carrying forward work on participatory action research (PAR) which is central to current projects on cancer, environmental health and the role of nurses, midwives and PHPs.
Research grants
The group has gained a range of small, medium and larger grants from the following funding bodies in recent years:
- Carnegie Trust
- Chief Scientist Office (CSO)
- Scottish Government
- European Union (EU)
- Highland and Islands Enterprise (HIE)
- Nursing and Midwifery Practice Development Unit
- Research charities including those based in Canada and NGOs.
- National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE)
