Oxford Brookes University
Faculty of Health and Life Sciences
Oxford Institute of Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Research
3 Year, full-time PhD studentship
Eligibility: Home UK/EU applicants who must be permanently resident in the UK
Bursary p.a.: Bursary equivalent to UKRI national minimum stipend plus fees (2022/23 bursary rate
is £16,062)
Fees and Bench fees: University fees and bench fees will be met by the University for the 3 years of
the funded Studentship.
Closing date: 22 June 2022
Interviews: 4 July 2022
Start date: September 2022
Project Title: A mixed methods study to explore factors influencing the learning environment,
patient safety and care quality in non-UK and UK trained registered nurses
Director of Studies: Dr Catherine Henshall
Other Supervisors: Dr Clair Merriman
Requirements:
Applicants should have a first or upper second-class honours degree from a Higher Education
Institution or acceptable equivalent qualification in a relevant discipline. Non-UK Applicants must
have a valid IELTS Academic test certificate (or equivalent) with an overall minimum score of 7.0 and
no score below 6.0 issued in the last 2 years by an approved test centre. The student will be based
within the Workforce Development Research Group. A Masters level qualification is required.
Project Description
The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) relies heavily on international staff recruitment to provide
patient facing care. 19% (65,000) of nurses from over 163 non-British nationalities make up the
workforce. The focus on international nurse recruitment has intensified, due to challenges in
training, recruiting and retaining domestic nurses. Internationally recruited nurses face challenges
due to cultural differences between nursing training programmes in the UK and abroad, including
different approaches to carrying out personal care and care planning processes. There is an unmet
need to effectively support non-UK trained nurses to successfully integrate into work and wider
society, with resulting impacts on patient care quality and safety and the supervision/assessment of
nursing students. Providing supportive resources and guidance to international nurses can help
reduce cultural dissonance in providing safe and appropriate student learning environments.
The mixed methods study design will develop a rich understanding of the behaviours of non-UK
registered nurses:
Phase 1: A systematic literature review exploring to what extent the backgrounds of internationally
recruited nurses’ impact on the quality and safety of patient care, and the learning environment as
experienced by students and newly qualified nurses.
Phase 2: Vignettes, relating to common situations registered nurses encounter in clinical practice,
will be developed. These will relate to topics around care delivery and supporting student nurses in
clinical practice through supervisory and assessor roles. Non-UK trained and UK trained nurse
participants will be asked how they would respond.
Phase 3: Interviews carried out with non-UK trained and UK trained registered nurses, nurse
managers, multidisciplinary team members, NHS recruiting managers and Chief Nurses - exploring
phase 1 &2 findings.
For informal inquiries about the project/application process contact Dr Clair Merriman
cmerriman@brookes.ac.uk or Dr Catherine Henshall chenshall@brookes.ac.uk
How to apply: Email hlsapplications@brookes.ac.uk to request an application form.