As a School of Nursing and Midwifery many of our programmes offer students the opportunity to work with members of the community on placements, whether through acute hospital trusts, community trusts or placements with local community and voluntary organisations.
The school also has strong links with the university's central strategies and structures for community engagement, for example through Angie Hart, Centre for Nursing and Midwifery Research, who is both the Academic Director of the Community University Partnership Programme, and Professor of Child, Family and Community Health. She also contributes to teaching across both areas. Alongside other colleagues in the school, Professor Hart engages in community-involved research, and works closely with local community organisations. Her particular area of expertise is about enhancing resilience with disadvantaged children and their families. She also is part of the Cupp Helpdesk which acts as a broker between community groups and the university, linking academics with community partners through mutually beneficial projects.
Professor Val Hall has undertaken research with Early Years colleagues in the voluntary sector and in Brighton & Hove City Council. Together with colleagues she is researching alongside gypsy traveller organisations funded by the Healthy Cities initiative. Also, the director of a local charity is on secondment to the Centre for Nursing and Midwifery Research within the school, working with Angie Hart on resilience in disadvantaged children.
In conjunction with Cupp, the school has developed and successfully piloted a new core module entitled 'Partnership and participation with marginalised groups', in order to further our students' engagement with the community. The students who undertook the pilot module reported that it changed both their lives and their practice, and so the school very much hopes to run the module again in future. Enquiries about it are welcome and should be directed to Juliet Millican, Cupp Development Manager, in the first instance.
