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The University of Southampton
Health SciencesPostgraduate study

Emily Young MPhil/PhD

Emily Young's Photo

Hi, I'm Emily Young and I studied MPhil/PhD within Health Sciences at the University of Southampton.

I feel that I’m constantly progressing, constantly moving forward. I also like the flexibility I have had to work across many different clinical settings in hospital and community.

As a newly qualified midwife I was awarded a place on the Clinical Academic Doctoral Fellowship scheme, which means I spend two days a week working in clinical practice and three days a week on my PhD. The idea of this is that both things work together. I have a caseload of community-based women with additional psychosocial needs, and my research is psychology based, exploring women’s confidence for birth.

I chose the University of Southampton because I was an undergraduate student here, but also because of its academic reputation. As an undergraduate the opportunity arose to apply for this fairly new Clinical Academic Doctoral Fellowship, I was the first Clinical Academic Doctoral Fellow in my Trust so it’s been really exciting.

The Fellowship is now in its third year, so it’s been really helpful to receive guidance from those who have gone before me on how to balance clinical work with academia. As a result, I feel that I’m constantly progressing, constantly moving forward. I also like the flexibility I have had to work across many different clinical settings in hospital and community.

The working methods of the scheme have been really good. I have great support from my fantastic supervisors. I meet with them every two weeks or so, and it’s been a real journey in terms of my learning. I think one of the best things is working with everyone else. All the PhD students are really supportive of each other. Another thing I really like is the monthly Postgraduate research forums where we meet to discuss and present our work to each other. You learn a lot through that.

Looking forward to the future, I’d definitely like to keep doing what I’m doing, so continue researching, but I’d also like to continue having a clinical focus. One possibility is to become a consultant midwife, which would enable me to keep doing both the things that I enjoy. I hope that it will be a unique advantage to

To any midwife thinking of doing a PhD I'd say go for it. You’ll never regret it. I think it’s been the best decision I’ve ever made. The opportunities that become available to you are so beneficial and interesting. For example, last year I went Prague to the International Confederation of Midwives conference where I met midwives from all across the world, which gave me new and interesting perspectives.

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