Oxford University Hospitals staff awarded new lectureship

The post-doctoral Academic Clinical Lectureship is designed to support nurses, midwives, allied health professionals, healthcare scientists, pharmacy staff, and psychologists (NMAHPPs) in Oxford who want to pursue careers in academic clinical research.

Professor Helen Walthall, director of nursing, midwifery and allied health professionals research and innovation at Oxford University Hospitals (OUH), said: “NMAHPPS play a vital and growing role in delivering high-quality, evidence-based healthcare.

“But unlike medical doctors, they don’t have a recognised clinical academic pathway, which can limit their ability to pursue a clinical-academic research career.”

The new roles, based within the Oxford University Clinical Academic Graduate School (OUCAGS), offer a two-year programme split equally between research and clinical practice.

Three posts are funded by the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre (Oxford BRC), and a fourth by the NIHR Oxford Blood and Transplant Research Unit (BTRU).

Ms Walthall said the scheme addresses a key gap in research leadership training.

She added: “Developing clinical academic careers for our NMAHPPS workforce is a key strategic aim for OUH and the Oxford BRC.

“They fill a gap in research leadership training for NMAHPPS, and we hope that in future this will be seen as an important step towards developing a steady stream NMAHPPS who are confident, independent and successful principal investigators leading their own research groups.”

The four appointed NMAHPPs are all current staff at Oxford University Hospitals.