Rate My Professor Susie Pearce

Dr Susie Pearce is an Associate Professor (Research) in Clinical Nursing in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Faculty of Health, at the University of Plymouth. She serves as Co-Director of the South West Clinical School and Co-Director of the Torbay and South Devon Clinical School. As a qualitative researcher, Pearce specializes in innovative methods, patient and professional experiences, and the development of cultures of compassionate, effective, and safe care. She is involved in developing nurse-led research in practice and the university, linking research education and practice. Pearce supervises doctoral students, directs studies for health and social care professionals pursuing part-time PhDs, and teaches qualitative research methods and end-of-life care. She acts as module lead for end-of-life and palliative care.

Pearce's current research focuses on developing and supporting nursing and multi-disciplinary workforces, identifying challenges and priorities for people at the end of life and those supporting them, exploring person-centred quality of care in care homes, and developing models for safe ICU nursing care. She leads a South West regional project to build a skilled research workforce and supports nursing strategy, workforce development, practice-based research, innovation, and practice development at Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust as a Clinical Academic. She has supervised PhD projects awarded TMRF Fellowships totaling over £328,000, including Kathryn Bamforth (2019, £85,000), Corinne Squire (2020, £78,000), Stephanie Janka Spurlock (2022, £83,000), and Abigail McWhinney (2023, £82,000). Key publications include 'A scoping review of personalised UK maternity care: where are we now?' (2025, British Journal of Midwifery), 'Exploring perceived barriers to palliative and end of life care provision in South-West England' (2025, Frontiers in Sociology), 'Exploring Research Culture in Care Homes to Identify the Barriers and Facilitators to Research: A Rapid Review' (2025, Journal of Long-Term Care), 'Health professional perceptions of communicating with adolescents and young adults about bone cancer clinical trial participation' (2019), and 'Outcomes sensitive to critical care nurse staffing levels: A systematic review protocol' (2019). Pearce is a member of the Nursing and Midwifery Council and Royal College of Nursing. She serves on the NIHR Research for Patient Benefit South West Committee (2018-present), NIHR RfPB Nursing and Midwifery specialist panel (2023), NIHR/HEE South West Review Panel (2020-present), and was a member of the National Institute of Cancer Research Teenage and Young Adult Clinical Studies Group (2008-2014). She is an Editorial Board Member for European Journal of Cancer Care and reviews for Cancer Nursing, European Journal of Oncology Nursing, European Journal of Cancer Care, Pilot and Feasibility Studies, and International Journal of Nursing Studies.