I had originally applied for the Chief Nurse Fellowship and through that I heard about the PhD studentship instead. That was always my end goal, so I was going to use the fellowship as a stepping stone. But these opportunities don’t come up that often, so I thought actually I’ll just go straight for it.

The prerequisites were that it had to be research within people over 65, which worked well for me because I’m an occupational therapist working in the community and the majority of our caseload fits that. I also had a couple of Teams calls with my Director of Studies before the interview to talk through ideas and make sure it was something worthwhile. She liked the idea of looking into the social frailty side of things, so I went ahead with the application.

It all happened quite quickly, I interviewed in December and started in January, but it worked well for me.

My area is frailty, but particularly social frailty. My project is a concept analysis focusing on the experiences of people living in coastal communities.

A lot of the existing research is quantitative and looks at things like how we screen for social frailty, prevalence, and risk factors. But there’s very little about what it actually means to people who are socially frail or at risk of it. That’s the gap I’m trying to explore.

I’m focusing on a few locations in the South West, including Ilfracombe, Bude and Plymouth, to get a wider perspective rather than just one area.

At the start, I felt quite guilty not being in my day-to-day clinical role. In a clinical role you’re used to targets and being busy, whereas with the PhD you need to sit, read, and give yourself time to think and process things.

It felt like I wasn’t doing enough at first, but over time I could see the benefit and how important that time is. I also realised that having this different element to my role has actually made me enjoy my job more.

Another challenge was working remotely and not knowing other PhD students. To overcome that, I connected with others through my supervisors and joined peer support groups, which really helped build a network.

I have monthly supervision with my academic supervisors and a clinical supervisor I can contact informally when needed. My team and managers have been very supportive and flexible, for example, allowing me to attend things like this during work time.

Helen and Maggie regularly share opportunities and have been really encouraging. I’ve also been able to attend conferences and network with others involved in research.

The PhD is fully funded, and I have two days a week dedicated to my research role. There’s also funding each year for things like conferences, travel, and training, which has helped me attend teaching sessions and events.

I’ve still got about two and a half years of funding left, so my focus is continuing with the PhD.

After that, I’d really like to stay involved in research in some form. Eventually I’d like to move into a research role within the Trust, that would be the goal.

I would say go for it if you’re thinking about it. There’s no harm in exploring the options and then making a decision.

Sometimes in our roles it can feel like these opportunities aren’t achievable or won’t work alongside your day-to-day job, but for me it really has worked well. It’s made me enjoy my job more, and I’d definitely encourage others to explore it.