We know how important it is for patients and families to be able to see visitors. Please help us keep our patients and staff as safe as possible by checking the guidance below before you visiting.
Read more on visiting times...
We recognise the impact that a long stay in hospital can have on families and the importance of maintaining strong communication. Our ward staff are keeping in touch with patients’ next of kin directly and our Voluntary Services team can help pass on personal messages from family and friends.
After suspending visiting earlier in the year, we are now able to offer limited visiting to some wards at the discretion of the nurse in-charge.”
Read more on visiting times...
We recognise the impact that a long stay in hospital can have on families and the importance of maintaining strong communication. Our ward staff are keeping in touch with patients’ next of kin directly and our Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) can help pass on personal messages from family and friends.
The Queen Alexandra Hospital is located just on the hill slopes of Portsdown Hill overlooking Portsmouth. It is conveniently situated for both the M27 and A3M.
Family members and carers play an important role in supporting patients during an episode of ill health. We are committed to the active involvement of family members, friends and carers during a hospital stay. Family members and carers play an important role in supporting patients during an episode of ill health.
More information on visiting hospital for an appointment.
If you've had experience of using our services and would like to make a comment then please contact the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS). Your views are very important to us and we would like to hear where you think improvements are needed or where things have gone so well that you would like to share your thanks or gratitude with the staff involved. When things have not gone so well then you can be sure that we want to hear from you, so please get in touch with PALS.
Our Strategy – Working Together, Improving Together
Our strategy sets out our vision, values, strategic aims and most importantly, how we will deliver against these ambitions for our patients, communities, and people in the future.
It is not just a document, it is for and about everyone at PHU, building on what we have achieved with a renewed focus on continuous improvement and the need to continue to work together and improve together to achieve our goals.
A full copy of the strategy can be downloaded here.
For more information, please visit our strategy webpage.
There are lots of opportunities for you to get involved with the Trust, from volunteering to attending our public meetings, our Annual General Meeting or our hospital open day which is held every year.
We welcome and value your feedback and use the views you share with us in a number of ways to learn and make improvements as well as sharing best practice. Feedback can be provided in a number of ways.
Last updated: 28 July 2023
Welcome to the Portsmouth University Hospitals NHS Trust's clinical academic hub!
The clinical academic hub aims to support nursing, midwifery and allied health professional (AHP) clinicians who are undertaking research within the Trust. This may include colleagues on research training pathways, those interested in using research to improve clinical care and services we provide to our patients, as well as those who manage clinical academic staff.
The clinical academic hub is a great place to start if you would like to know more about clinical academic roles in general and how you could start to get involved in research in your clinical area.
A clinical academic is someone who splits their role between working clinically and undertaking research or improvement work. Their work is aimed at investigating new ways to deliver care and improve outcomes for the people they treat.
Working within the NHS, clinical academics help to develop and lead relevant research, that is grounded in investigating real problems experienced in clinical practice. In addition, they also act as a bridge between the NHS and universities and collaborate on research and build teams whose members have the right knowledge and skills to answer key patient centred questions.
Clinical academic’s also support their department’s clinical team members and encourage them to become more involved in research and improvement work. They are innovative and creative with the skills for quality improvement (QI) and audit work, as well as research projects. By utilising these approaches clinical academics help create and build a culture of research within health services, advancing care and improving outcomes for patients.
A clinical academic career is typically defined by a series of training opportunities to help develop research and leadership skills. To get started on a clinical academic career pathway, several options are available.
https://www.hee.nhs.uk/our-work/clinical-academic-careers/research-internships
https://www.arc-wx.nihr.ac.uk/our-academy/fellowships-and-internships/
If you are already further along the career pathway and are undertaking or have completed a PhD the team would be happy to meet with you to talk about next steps, whether that is applying for a bridging scheme, or in developing a post-doctoral fellowship or research grant application.
Post doc fellowships (clinical and senior clinical lectureships) are available via the NIHR ICA programme, as well as ARC Wessex and some medical research charities, but are very competitive and need planning and support. We can help you to take this often challenging but highly rewarding next step.
Rosalynn Austin PhD: Cardiology Clinical Academic Nurse Researcher
I’ve been involved in research delivery for over 10 years, in multiple NHS trusts and different disease types. As a research nurse in cardiology, I became curious around how symptoms of heart failure might be interacting with people’s ability to do their self-care, which led to me being awarded a Clinical Doctoral Research Fellowship which was a partnership between Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust (PHU), University of Southampton, and the Applied Research Collaborative (ARC) Wessex. I completed my PhD in 2022 and as I did my PhD by publication you can read about my research in the following papers:
In short, my PhD demonstrated that symptoms matter and they can make doing the work (self-care) that clinicians assign people with heart failure difficult to impossible.
Since finishing my PhD, I have started to develop research projects and submit grants that will further the understanding of how we as clinicians can improve the experiences and treatment of people with heart failure. These projects will be focused on building a cardiology research group that bridges clinical expertise at PHU with academic researchers at the University of Portsmouth.
Interested to find out more? Contact me on Rosalynn.Austin@porthosp.nhs.uk or follow me on Twitter Dr Rosalynn Austin RN (@RosalynnAustin) / Twitter
Contact: Clinical.academic@porthosp.nhs.uk or Rosalynn.Austin@porthosp.nhs.uk
Twitter: @RosalynnAustin
Chantel Ostler: Clinical academic physiotherapist – Prosthetic rehabilitation
I have always been interested in improving the care we provide to our patients. Early in my career I was regularly involved in audits and service improvement projects. I loved working with patients in the prosthetic service, listening to their views about our service and coming up with ideas together for how we could improve their experience and care.
In 2005 I undertook a masters degree which spiked my interest in research as an improvement tool. On completion, I undertook a role with Solent NHS trust as their lead research clinician which enabled me to gain a further understanding around meaningful patient engagement and how to really make research projects achievable and useful in NHS settings.
In 2018 I was approached by the University of Southampton to be part of a team exploring how digital technologies could improve access to prosthetic services in Cambodia. This partnership with the university led to a clinical academic role, with my time split between treating patients at the Portsmouth Enablement centre and undertaking clinically relevant prosthetic research. Being based in the NHS has enabled me to link the two roles, bringing more research opportunities into the department and supporting my colleagues to develop their research understanding and skills.
In my role at the University, I teach on the Amputation and Prosthetic Rehabilitation Masters programme, support students with their research and act as the clinical lead for the People Powered Prosthetics research group. I am also currently completing my PhD exploring meaningful outcome measurement in lower limb prosthetic rehabilitation.
Contact: Clinical.academic@porthosp.nhs.uk / chantel.ostler2@porthosp.nhs.uk
Twitter: @research_agent
To find out more about some of our other clinical academics here at PHU, visit our staff spotlight page and follow us on twitter @CAhubPHU
Emma Lane: senior cardiac physiologist
I am starting the fourth year of my part-time PHD at the University of Portsmouth and also work as a senior cardiac physiologist at Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust (PHU).
My PHD study is called GLASSheart and is investigating heart function by using non-standard echocardiography (echo) and blood results in patients who have been admitted with sepsis or septic shock to the intensive care unit (ICU) at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Cosham. Patients participating in the study have an echo and bloods done on admission, and during their three-month follow-up. My study sits within the National Institute of Health’s research portfolio.
Although significantly delayed due to covid, it has been fantastic to start meeting and recruiting patients and follow them along the GLASSheart journey. Seeing patients progress from being seriously ill in ICU, to walking through my clinic door with a smile, may well be the best part of research! Working with the research staff at PHU has been incredibly rewarding and I’m not sure how I could have done it without their support.
Research patient from GLASSheart said; “Getting involved in research is one way I can help the NHS. Research is so vital for us to gain a better understanding of medical conditions. We always need to keep finding out and discovering new treatments.
“By taking part in the GLASSheart study, I hope I can help clinicians gain a further understanding of sepsis in the heart and its impact on patients and their quality of life. I would recommend anyone who is able to, to get involved in research.”
On what will make the study a success, Emma said that identifying heart failure early in sepsis and septic shock could help clinicians consider alternative treatments for patients. This study lays the foundation of knowledge, it doesn’t look to change the treatments. The legacy of sepsis and septic shock on heart function is currently unknown, however the GLASSheart study could help identify how patients could benefit from post-discharge cardiac involvement and if early involvement might help improve their quality of life.
She added, “I am excited to see the results of my GLASSheart study and how it could improve patient outcomes. A multi-centre study in the future could help build on findings, and something that I would love to be involved in! It would be great to see a wider range of clinical staff getting involved in research and I would love to include research as part of my future role after completing my PhD.”
Thank you to Ambu ECG electrodes and Cardiac Remotes Ltd who have kindly supported and funded the additional research costs.
How to contact Emma:
email: glassheart.study@porthosp.nhs.uk
Twitter: @em_echo
Ruth Reeve: sonographer/diagnostic radiographer
After qualifying as a diagnostic radiographer in 2010, I began my journey into research by undertaking a Master’s in medical ultrasound. Following my studies, I wanted to find out more about gastrointestinal ultrasound, particularly pancreatic cystic lesions. Alongside this, I wanted to do further research into patients who were closely observing and monitoring their own condition and their experience. This led to my successful bid to receive predoctoral and doctoral research funding.
I am now working towards a PhD which aims to understand and identify improvements for the patients that I work with. My PhD has provided me with a number of fantastic opportunities to engage in research in my area of interest as well as the wider radiography and ultrasound workforce. Through sharing the work I have done to date, it’s been really encouraging to see how much interest this has generated with colleagues. I am therefore really keen to promote research and improve engagement within clinical departments, but also the role of clinical academics which has led to some of my more recent publications.
As highlighted in my most recent article, the future for clinical academics is an exciting but uncertain one. With my PhD fellowship due to end in 2022, and with the leadership skills I have gained, I hope that the opportunity to combine research into my clinical role at PHU comes to fruition and I can continue to help improve patient experiences and encourage research engagement locally and nationally.
Recent Publications:
Radiography online: A paper written with other Radiographers describing the challenges and benefits of developing clinical academics within the profession. The article hopes to encourage others to engage in research to benefit patients and services.
Twitter journal club: A paper analysing a twitter journal club for ultrasound practitioners. The journal club was the first one for the British medical ultrasound society, and discusses the points raised and the success of this type of continued professional development for ultrasound operators. The paper aims to promote further engagement with research online.
Radiography journal podcast: As a journal editor I have created this podcast to discuss publications, as well as specific conversations with published authors about their research. By understanding and discussing how their work applies to the wider radiography profession and patients, the podcast aims to promote research engagement within the radiography community. I hope to produce a further podcast for the community shortly.
Email: ruth.reeve@porthosp.nhs.uk
Twitter: @ReeveRuth
Our 'Evaluating the evidence' podcast series discusses educational hot topics from dementia to medicines management - keep up with the series below!
PHU Clinical Academic's podcast:
A series of videos about starting out in clinical academia: https://vimeo.com/showcase/9710034
Video guide to the NHS research approvals process:
Audit team http://pht/Departments/ClinicalAudit/default.aspx
Quality Improvement: PortsmouthImprovement.Academy@porthosp.nhs.uk
Research and Innovation: https://www.porthosp.nhs.uk/research/
Research Office - Group Mailbox: Research.Office@porthosp.nhs.uk
Portsmouth Clinical Trials Unit: https://portsmouthtechnologiestrialsunit.org.uk/
SIGHT: https://www.sightprogramme.co.uk/
Patient Research Ambassadors: https://www.porthosp.nhs.uk/research/patient-research-ambassadors.htm
Library: https://www.porthosp.nhs.uk/departments/library%20and%20elearning/
Library Requests - Group Mailbox: Library.Requests@porthosp.nhs.uk
Library QAH - Group Mailbox: library.qah@porthosp.nhs.uk
The clinical academic hub at PHU runs a peer support network linking clinical academics working across the Trust together.
Please contact the research office if you would like to get involved or want support in embedding research into your clinical career.
A clinical academic within the clinical team can bring added value by supporting your quality improvement work, working in partnership with your patients, disseminating research findings, sharing their learning with the wider team and researching important questions from clinical practice.
If you are a manager who supports a clinical academic, navigating this career pathway is challenging and we can offer advice and guidance about what is possible. Contact the research office to get more support.
The research Design Service help support people to apply for research training fellowships such as the ICA programme, or apply for grants to fund new research projects. They can help you identify the best funding stream for your research idea, link you with academics in the field and review your funding application. They also offer regular workshops about how to get started in research as well as how to be competitive with grant applications.
Research Design Service: https://www.rds-sc.nihr.ac.uk/
Wessex Reach are a local organisation who support individuals across Wessex to start a research career. They provide information about training opportunities, research funding and help build collaborations with research teams. They also offer a mentoring programme to help support you get started on your research journey and help navigate the many bumps in the road.
The National Institute for Health Research is the research arm of the NHS and offers many different training and funding opportunities. It also provides useful information about the UKs research infrastructure and how research is undertaken in NHS organisations.
National Institute for Health Research (NIHR): https://www.hee.nhs.uk/our-work/clinical-academic-careers/integrated-clinical-academic-ica-programme
The health research authority regulate research activity within UK health and social care organisations. They co-ordinate both the ethical approval process and the trust R&D approvals, the latter in partnership with individual trusts. Their website contains useful information about whether you need NHS ethical approval for your project as well as information about the approvals process itself.
Health Research Authority: https://www.hra.nhs.uk/
The applied research collaboration Wessex supports applied health and social care research that responds to and meets the needs of local populations and local health and care systems, and they focus on four key research areas, age and aging, healthy communities, long term conditions and work force and health systems. They offer regular funding awards to start research careers as well as supporting people along the clinical academic career pathway. The also have an academy that provides research training and career development opportunities.
ARC Applied Research Collaborative Wessex: https://www.arc-wx.nihr.ac.uk/
