Pam Smith

Pam Smith, FRCN, is a Professor of Nursing at the University of Edinburgh's School of Health in Social Science. Her research focuses on emotions and care within nursing. Smith earned her Bachelor of Nursing degree from the University of Manchester. She later obtained a postgraduate certificate in adult education, an MSc in Medical Sociology, and a PhD in "The Quality of Nursing and the Ward as a Learning Environment for Student Nurses: A Multimethod Approach" from King's College London in 1988. Her career began as a nurse and teacher in Tanzania, Mozambique, and Britain. She transitioned to nursing research after her doctoral studies, supported by a Florence Nightingale Travel Scholarship and a Fulbright Fellowship. While at the University of California, Berkeley, she worked with Arlie Russell Hochschild on emotional labor in nursing. Smith has explored how nurses manage emotions in intensive care settings, the voices of older people, and the transitions faced by professionals caring for children with cancer. Smith held research leadership roles at Bloomsbury Health Authority (1985–1992) and London South Bank University (1997–2001). She became Professorial Fellow in Nursing Studies at the University of Edinburgh in 2012, following a secondment as Professor of Nurse Education at the University of Surrey (2009–2012). She served as Head of Nursing Studies from 2010 to 2013. Her recent research includes maternal and child health service delivery in Nepal and Malawi, frameworks for health policy deliberations on healthcare data, and improving maternal and child healthcare through education in Malawi. Smith is a visiting ...