Spotlight on Health Professional Researcher: Freya Brown

Freya, could you give us a brief summary of your route into a PhD, including previous research experience, and how this was funded?

My first degree was a BA Hons in English Lit, and I aspired to be an actress when I graduated which, unsurprisingly, didn’t happen!  After several temporary jobs, some travelling, and a re-evaluation of what I wanted to do career-wise, I decided on paediatric nursing.  I started my nurse training when I was 29, which was only possible due to the bursary and support offered to mature students at that time.  After qualifying, I worked as a staff nurse on paediatric wards for approximately three years where I developed an interest in working with young people living with diabetes. In 2009, I started my first job as a PDSN.

I was interested in further study and heard about the Doctoral Fellowship awarded by FEND.  This offers a fantastic opportunity to pitch your ideas for a research project and, if successful take your project forward while developing research-related knowledge and skills.   My salary, university fees and most of my research costs were funded by FEND for three years. However, I have now returned to clinical work three days a week while I finish writing up my PhD.  Although I am enjoying working as a PDSN again, it has taken a while to adjust to working part time in the NHS and part time on the PhD, and the importance of setting boundaries and protecting allocated time is becoming increasingly evident.

Apart from assisting with recruitment and data collection for a couple of clinical research studies when working as a PDSN, I had no prior research experience when I started the PhD, and I do not have a Masters.

What are your long-term ambitions for your clinical academic career?

I would like to continue working clinically one or two days a week.  I enjoy working with young people and families, and I also think that embedding researchers within clinical settings could help address the research-practice gap.  The plan is to apply for funding to continue with my research so that I can build on the findings from my PhD project.

What tip(s) would you give to a clinician newly embarking on an out-of-programme research project e.g. a PhD or MD(Res)?

Listen to the advice of people who are further along in the research process than you or have completed their project.  They will have a wealth of invaluable advice and can be a source of much appreciated support and encouragement. 

Having said that, don’t compare your progress to that of others too much.  Their situation will be different, and your projects will also vary.  If your supervisors think you’re on track, then don’t worry.

Generally, assume things will take longer than you expect, and try to factor that in (I thought this was just me but, after talking to other PhD students, it seems not!).   

Factor in ‘thinking time’; this is important when planning and carrying out research, and when analysing findings. Coming from a busy clinical work environment, spending time thinking (and seemingly producing little) could make me feel guilty and like I was not making progress - this was (usually) not the case.

Although your friends and family may be very supportive, in my experience it’s unlikely that they want to talk in depth about the research process.  They may not mind me practising my elevator pitch or ‘5-minute thesis’ on them, but eyes tend to start glazing over if I go into too much detail.  So, one of many reasons why it’s great to have friends who are also early years researchers is that you can discuss your projects in more detail and bounce ideas off each other.  Engage with the social side of uni life as much as possible and talk to other people doing MSc/PhDs.

What support has been most helpful to you in terms of navigating your clinical academic career to date?

I have fantastic supervisors; they are knowledgeable, approachable, accessible, encouraging, but also challenge me.  Also, my partner, friends, family, and the KCL Florence Nightingale Faculty Diabetes team (who have become valued friends – see above).

What is the most rewarding thing about being a clinical academic researcher?

Any moment when you think ‘this is really interesting and may even contribute a little to increasing our knowledge and/or understanding and improving experiences’.  Also, I imagine it would be amazing to see recommendations from a project you were involved in adopted in practice, but I’m not there yet!

Interview occurred on 11 February 2021.