Our ongoing collaboration with our NHS and independent sector partners, service users and carers ensures that the delivery of education is contemporary, evidence-based and meets the needs of the health and social care services. We have strong links with our partners including the private sector, covering both hospital and community settings.

 This strong partnership also allows us to offer a diverse range of high-quality placements throughout our undergraduate portfolio. We place a strong emphasis on linking theory to practice and our students will experience a breadth of health and social care settings and in a range of geographical locations.  This will provide students with significant urban, remote and rural practice experience preparing them for a successful career after they graduate. 

We provide dynamic and transformational learning, as well as teaching and research that makes a leading contribution to improving the health and wellbeing of local, national and global communities.  A key part of learning and development is evolved through simulated practice learning and we use this method in a number of courses allowing students to experience real-life situations but in a realistic and safe environment. By using volunteer patients and a range of facilities across campus, students can practice their responses and actions when facing an emergency situation, preparing them for the future.

The wide range of education and development opportunities provided by our School combines challenge with the reward of doing something truly worthwhile with your career. Our education programmes are innovative in their approach and are delivered by academic team members who are all qualified practitioners meaning students will benefit from their vast and varied clinical expertise and research knowledge. We aim to help our students to become knowledgeable, influential, skilled, compassionate and ready to work within a rapidly changing health and social care environment.

Awards and Recognition

• We’re the first university in Scotland to receive the UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiative gold award. The accreditation is recognised as a mark of quality in student midwifery and health visiting programmes.
  
• 1st in Scotland for career prospects in Health Professions (Guardian University Guide 2024)
• 2nd in Scotland for graduate prospects on track in Nursing (Complete University Guide 2025) 
• 2nd in Scotland for overall student satisfaction in Midwifery (National Student Survey 2023, excluding colleges, small, specialised and private providers)

Connect with us

School of Nursing, Midwifery & Paramedic Practice
The Ishbel Gordon Building
Robert Gordon University
Garthdee Road
Aberdeen
AB10 7QE

Email: snmpenquiries@rgu.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)1224 262966

Practice Learning

Placement experience is essential for producing graduates who are fit-for-purpose in rapidly changing health and social care environments. Our students undertake a variety of placements in locations throughout Scotland and, in some cases, abroad. These placements allow theory to be put into practice and essential skills are developed.

All of our undergraduate courses offer placements in practice, for up to 50% of the programme Course-specific information on placements is provided on the course page.

Affiliations and Industry Links

We have strong links with health and social care clinical partners, including the private sector, across the North and North East of Scotland covering both hospital and community settings. Our developing collaboration with service users and carers ensures that our courses are contemporary, evidence-based, and meet the needs of providers and users of health and social care services in a modern context.

We are proud to be associated with the following leading organisations, institutions and professional bodies.

Accreditations

The Nursing and Midwifery Council exists to safeguard the health and wellbeing of the UK public. It is responsible for registering all nurses and midwives, and setting the standards of education, training and conduct that nurses and midwives need to deliver high quality healthcare.

HCPC is a regulator which was set up to protect the public by keeping a register of health professionals who meet the Council’s standards for their training, professional skills, behaviour and health.

The RCN represents nurses and nursing, promotes excellence in practice and shapes health policies.

We have a vibrant community of postgraduate research students and there are opportunities to study for Research Masters, PhD and Professional Doctorates in topics related to our main themes.

We welcome enquiries about studying here. Please contact Associate Professor, Aileen Grant, for further information and a copy of our research brochure.

Our Research Aims and Themes

Our Research aim is to engage with key partners to develop, deliver and disseminate high quality research that is of value to society, those using health and social care services, and the professions of nursing, midwifery and paramedic practice.

Our vision is to be recognised for research that addresses the health and wellbeing of children, families, older people and the disadvantaged by undertaking impactful, innovative and interdisciplinary research to inform policy and practice.

Our research is encompassed within three overarching themes:

Organisation and delivery of health care

• Digital health
• Palliative care
• Integrated care

Health inequalities

• Food insecurity
• Poverty and social disadvantage
• Wider determinants of health and the role of nurses and midwives in relation to those.

Health and wellbeing across the lifespan

• Maternal, child and family health
• Long-term conditions and multi-morbidity
• Health ageing (Gerontology, ageing and frailty)
• Mental health and wellbeing
• End of life care.

Our Staff and Expertise

Our researchers and research supervisors undertake their studies within a wide range of theoretical frameworks and models relating to the development of policy and practice that takes account of: lived experiences of health and social issues, health and social care use, and, service delivery by the nursing, midwifery and paramedic professions, the evaluation of complex interventions and implementation in practice.

We have research expertise in a range of methodologies including mixed methods, systematic literature reviews, scoping and mapping studies, quantitative and qualitative research, feasibility and pilot studies moving towards large scale RCTs, if and where appropriate. 

Ethics

All research conducted in the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Paramedic Practice requires school ethical agreement to protect volunteer’s interests and to ensure the highest standards are adhered to. 

Recent Doctoral Graduates

• Dr Abodunrin Aminu: Horizon 2020 EuroAgeism Putting Ageism in Context: Community vs. Long-Term Care Institutions among the Oldest Old. 
• Dr Kevin Forbes: The mental health and adjustment of a prospective cohort of UK service personnel admitted to DMRC: Headley Court and their partners following combat-related traumatic amputation sustained during military operations in Afghanistan (OP HERRICK) between 2009 and 2011.  
• Dr Louise Henderson: Experiences and perceptions of patients and their families in accessing integrated health and social care, within a primary care setting of NHS Grampian, to meeting their health and wellbeing needs.
• Jo Lironi: MRes - Acceptability of a wearable real-time neonatal device to enable home monitoring and treatment of jaundice for new born babies from a rural setting.
• Dr Kate Goodhand: Use of simulation with healthcare students.
• Dr Neil Johnson: Evidence based practice in nursing care/education.
• Dr Holly Lear: The preparedness of nursing students studying abroad to provide care in low human development countries.
• Dr Mary McCallum: Supported self-management for people living with Long Term Conditions.
• Dr Julia Wells, Person Centred Care in age directed services of Older Adults with Mental illness hinder or aid patient recovery.

Key contacts

• Professor Catriona Kennedy: Associate Dean for Research
• Professor Flora Douglas: Professor of Public Health
• Associate Professor Aileen Grant: Senior Research Fellow, Convenor of Ethics Committee, Lead for Public and patient involvement and Post Graduate Research Degrees Co-ordinator
• Heather Nicolson: Administrator for research

Our Research Staff