1. Bern University of Applied Sciences
  2. School of Health Professions
  3. Research + Consulting services at the School of Health Professions
  4. About our research
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About our research

‘Your health. The goal of our research.’ With this as our basis, we are dedicated to outstanding quality and practical relevance in our research.

Guiding principles

  • We are distinguished by the highest level of expertise and professional practice in the profession of midwifery, nursing, physiotherapy and nutrition and dietetics, which is crucial for the health care system.
  • In close cooperation with our partners, we operate practice-relevant, impact-orientated and sustainable research, in the following specific fields: Psychosocial Health, Health Promotion, Prevention, assessments, interventions, outcomes and the progressive development of qualified personnel.
  • We traverse borders in our inter-professional work. This allows us to generate new and interdisciplinary knowledge, even within complexly-related topics.
  • Broad and well-founded methodological competence in qualitative and quantitative research enriches our professional expertise, and enables us to target future trends within the field.
  • For us, academic mentoring equates to the recognition and promotion of talents.
  • Our research is inter-professional, innovative and generates solutions for an adequate, evidence-based and high-quality health care system, as well as for effective prevention and rehabilitation. Through the involvement of affected patients, relatives, specialists and experts, key competences are promoted amongst all involved. Additionally, our research is tailored and implemented in accordance to the needs present in the health care system.
  • We identify challenges and gaps within the health care system, and accordingly generate solutions and new concepts. Our newly developed professional roles foster coordination and networking within the treatment processes, and make it easier for patients and their families to navigate their way through the health care system.
  • The effects of acute and chronic illnesses on patients and their relatives represent an important focus in our inter-professional research. Improvement of the quality of life for patients, clients as well as for elderly people requiring support, is a central concern in our work.
  • As an attractive research partner for universities in Switzerland as well as abroad, we are committed to the comprehensive training and to the targeted promotion of young academics, as well as to the retention of qualified personnel directly in the health care system.
  • Practice-relevant research results stimulate our teaching and continuing education programs. Research-based proposals are a part of our everyday professional life.
  • We promote the talents and individual careers of young academics in teaching, practice and research. In cooperation with universities at home and abroad, we offer research careers up to and including the doctorate level. We enable young scientists to pursue challenging academic research projects, while experienced researchers can distinguish themselves through their own expertise.

Research Focus

Outcome Orientation and Sustainability in Healthcare

We, the disciplines Nutrition and Dietetics, Obstetrics, Care and Physical Therapy, carry out research for and with our partners in healthcare and in an interdisciplinary environment. Our research focuses on sustainable, innovative and effective measures for the maintenance, recovery and improvement of health among patients and their relatives. On main concern is therefore the health of the individual. Our priorities lie in seeking collaboration and participation, addressing implementation at the interface between theory and practice and ensuring close proximity to the field of research is maintained. These are the aspects which characterise our work.

Research fields

Our research into psychosocial health addresses the psychological and physical stress arising in the social environment (often leading to actual illness) which can affect patients and their environment. The research focuses on ways of improving healthcare provision to support the maintenance and recovery of health and well-being. The centre of attention is always on those affected - on them as individuals, on their relationships and on their wider social environment. Accordingly, the questions we pose in our research projects address effective promotion of psychological and/or physical health and prevention, and investigate those factors that influence health. We also seek opportunities for boosting patients’ health and ensuring they can access health promotion measures.

In our research, conducted together with users, we develop occupational assessments, interventions and outcomes, or evaluate those already existing. Within this, careful empirical investigation of existing diagnostic and therapeutic procedures (assessments and interventions) and their practicability is important. New developments are taking place to address areas in which successful therapeutic procedures with meaningful validation via scientifically proven measurement (outcomes) are not yet available.  

Our research in the field of human resources in healthcare aims to support and improve the effective and health-promoting deployment of personnel. This research relies on the broad involvement of people in the healthcare sector, and aims to provide “Best Practice” in the overall professional context. In the area of management and/or leadership, our research focuses on working conditions tailored to meet the increasing demands placed on personnel competencies, such as adequate grade-and-skill mixes or adequate work organisation and environment. Our efforts to support professional skills cover the innovation, creativity and anticipation needed to meet future professional requirements.