Prof Val Hall

Professor of Midwifery

contact:
Nursing and Midwifery
Falmer
Brighton
BN1 9PH

Telephone: +44 (0)1273 644015

Email: V.Hall@brighton.ac.uk

Research interests

• Professional knowledge and decision making
• Inequalities in health
• Fathers' involvement in maternity services
• Maternal decision making
• Patient and public involvement in research
• Participatory research methods
• Use of virtual world technology

Current projects

• Engaging and supporting fathers to promote breastfeeding
  This research has three aims. The primary research aim is to undertake a concept analysis of the 'fathers' role in supporting breastfeeding' through the provision of a working definition of the concept for further study and usage. This is primarily desk-based research but we are taking an innovative step by including parents in the analytic process to reduce the researchers’ subjective biases. We are doing this to ensure that the resulting model reflects the reality of parents’ experience across all socio-economic groups.
  The secondary research aims are to learn from other countries with better breastfeeding continuance rates (compared to the UK) in order to develop an international model of father support and to work with the international partners to test the international model of father support.

Completed projects

• Towards an NHS toolkit for obtaining consent for hospital admission from adults with learning disability incorporating a novel virtual world experience and a specialist interview technique funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) under its Invention for Innovation (i4i) Programme. The project investigated the viability of a customised virtual world experience as part of a toolkit that could better enable NHS staff to gain consent from marginalised groups. We used a participatory research approach that involved working alongside people with learning disabilities and their supporters from the Grace Eyre Foundation. Article freely available at: www.jmir.org/2011/4/e91/.
  
  
• Gypsy and Travellers' use of urgent services funded by Brighton and Hove NHS. The study looked at the current use of urgent services by the technically 'invisible' Gypsy and Traveller population to determine how their urgent care needs are currently met and suggest ways to optimise services to improve health outcomes. in collaboration with Friends, Families, and Travellers, a charity supporting and representing the Gypsy and Traveller population. Participatory research techniques were used and peer researchers from the Gypsy and Traveller community were involved in all stages of the research process. Report available from the NHS Brighton and Hove website (pdf format)
  
  
• Evaluation of the Earlylink project funded by eb4u – New Deals for Communities. The study evaluated a pre-birth to eighteen months weekly home visiting service in East Brighton, and was conducted alongside the early implementation of Children’s Centres in Brighton. It was evaluated against the objectives for the East Brighton delivery plan which were to: reduce stress and isolation, support families, parents and carers, increase the percentage of women breastfeeding at birth, reduce smoking in pregnancy, reduce the number of vulnerable children. Other nationally recognised areas of importance such as improved nutrition, identification of post natal depression and the quality of the child parent relationship were addressed. Report available UoB Repository
  
  
• Addressing inequalities in health: New directions in midwifery education and practice funded by the English National Board for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting (2001). The research investigated the literature around the provision of maternity services to minority and ethnic women, with regard to historical, social, and political contexts in relation to concepts such as impairment prejudice and discrimination. It looked at the key skills needed by midwives in order to execute anti-discriminatory practice and care effectively for disadvantaged women and women from minority groups. Report available on the UoB repository.

Profile

Professor Valerie Hall leads the Centre for Health Research at the University of Brighton. She is also the Director of the NIHR Research Design Service South East (www.rds-se.nihr.ac.uk) and a member of the NIHR Faculty.

As a midwife, educationalist and researcher, she has been involved in facilitating the growth of research capacity in the NHS and particularly in nursing and midwifery. She acts as a mentor within the Academy of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting Research (UK).

Her research interests focus broadly on decision making and providing accessible services for marginalised groups. Together with other colleagues, she developed a learning model to help practitioners engage actively with issues in health inequalities, which has attracted national and international interest. She has recently completed a feasibility study looking at the use of virtual world technology as a step towards improving consent processes which attracted media attention.

She is currently undertaking research in father involvement in breastfeeding and women's decision-making regarding mode of delivery following caesarean section.

She has supervised five doctoral students to successful completion in the areas of professional decision making, patient experiences, inter-relationships between patient/clients and health professionals, and multi-professional learning.

Abstract of Inaugural Professorial Lecture
15 June 2005
Blending ancient wisdom with contemporary understandings: re-birthing midwifery scholarship (pdf 15Kb)

Recent publications

Reports

Hall, V., Sadouni, M., and Fuller, A. (2009) Gypsy and Travellers' experience of using urgent care services within NHS Brighton and Hove boundaries. April 2008 – August 2009, University of Brighton, UK

Hall, V. and Virgo, S., (2007) Evaluation of the Earlylink project: a pre-birth to eighteen months home visiting and parent support service in East Brighton, University of Brighton

Hart, A., Lockey, R., Henwood, F., Pankhurst, F., Hall, V. and Sommerville, F. (2001) Addressing inequalities in health: New directions in midwifery education and practice English National Board for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting: London.

Conference papers

2011 - Hall, V, Sherriff, N and Panton, C. Engaging and supporting fathers to promote breastfeeding. The Royal College of Midwives Annual Conference 2011. The Brighton Centre, Brighton, 26 November 2011.

2011 - Conboy-Hill, S., Taylor, D., Hall, V., Jarvis, E. Virtual Worlds and People with Learning Disabilities Joint Congress of the European Association for Mental Health in Intellectual Disability & IASSID Challenging Behaviour &s Mental Health SIRG 1- 3 September 2011, Palace Hotel, Manchester, UK Hosted by the DCP Faculty for Learning Disabilities

2011 - Hall, V, Sherriff, N and Panton, C. Engaging and supporting fathers to promote breastfeeding. The Sussex, Surrey and Kent Paediatric and Neonatal Research Network and the Surrey and Sussex Reproductive Health and Childbirth Research Network. Annual Research Symposium. Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton 2 September 2011.

2011 - Conboy-Hill, S., Taylor, D., Hall, V., Jarvis, E. ‘Virtual Worlds and People with Learning Disabilities’. Presented to Wired for Health conference. A Wired Sussex event. 17 March 2011

2011 - Blending ancient wisdom with contemporary understandings: rebirthing midwifery scholarship Keynote lecture 25th Japan Academy of Midwifery Conference, Nagoya, Japan 5 March 2011

2009 - Reflections on engaging in Participatory Research. Doctoral Midwifery Research Society - Professor of Midwifery Research Series: Guest Lecture University of Ulster 6 February 2009

2007 - 'The Earlylink project: championing support in the community for families with babies and young children' presented at the You, me, us HRHSC (Centre for Research in Health and Social Care) Annual Conference held at the University of Brighton, Small Hall, UK, 29 June 2007

2007 - Lessons learned from experience in facilitating public and patient involvement in research National RDSU Network conference Goodenough College London 14 June 2007

2007 - De l'Évaluation des pratiques professionelles à l'accréditation de la pratique professionnelle individuelle. Assistance Publique et Hopitaux de Paris, Ecole de Sages-Femmes Baudelocque, Université Paris Descartes. Paris Jan 2007

2007 - Midwifery in the future. Midwives: Saving lives together! Conference and Fundraising event for White Ribbon Alliance UCLAN in partnership with Johnson's baby 4 May 2007

2005 - Le développement de la recherche autour de la profession des sages-femmes. Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Rouen. November 2005

2005 - 'Thinking Aloud' - a technique for uncovering multi-sensory learning in professional education: Society for Research into Higher Education annual conference. Edinburgh 2005

2004 - Capturing hearts and minds: factors influencing recruitment and retention in midwifery education. Transforming the Architecture of Midwifery Education. Royal College of Midwives Conference. London 2004

2004 - Dealing with diversity and devalued difference on professional courses: a learning tool in action. Diverse students, diverse disciplines: successful academic and professional study. Learning and Teaching Conference. University of Brighton, Sussex 2004

2004 - Education and Development. Valuing Midwives: Developing and increasing the workforce. Department of Health in association with the Royal College of Midwives. London 2004

2003 - The use of imagination in Higher Education to enable learning about disadvantage clients. Transforming Healthcare through Research, Education and Technology. 4th Annual International Research Conference. Dublin, Ireland 2003

2002 - Helping health and social care professionals to develop an inequalities imagination: A model for use in education and practice. Cultural Care paradigms in Life Transitions: An interdisciplinary approach. 28th Annual Conference of the Transcultural Nursing Society. Toronto, Canada 2002