Staff Profile

I have been working in medical education research since 2005. I joined Newcastle University as a lecturer in 2013. Since then, I have developed and led in a number of projects with local and national partners, and since 2025 have been co-lead for Workforce Voices, an NIHR Workforce Research Partnership looking to develop workforce sustainability in underserved areas.

I also jointly lead the NIHR Incubator for Clinical Education Research, which provides a national network for researchers across the UK.

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My research interests currently focus on workforce research, within the Workforce Voices research partnership. This brings together a number of research interests developed through my work in medical education: careers (access to careers, and choices within them), preparedness, professional identity, and wellbeing. I am interested in the distribution of the workforce and the challenges associated with health inequalities, and how they affect and shape staff.

I am interested in the policy implications of research, particularly around workforce changes. Understanding the choices people make, and how the healthcare system shapes those choices, is important for addressing the current workforce crisis in healthcare.

I am a mixed methods researcher, and take a pragmatic approach to using and adapting the right methods for the right research questions - surveys, qualitative work, or analysis of existing data.

I have taught on the Masters in Medical Education programme since 2013, and since 2021 have been Module Leader for the Advanced Study Module, providing an introduction to research skills, and supporting students in the development of their research projects. I also support colleagues in the delivery of other modules on the MedEd programme.

I provide supervision to MMedEd, MD and PhD students, and to clinical academic trainees undertaking education research projects.

• Articles

  • Owen-Boukra E, Burford B, Cohen T, Duddy C, Dunn H, Fadia V, Goodman C, Henry C, Lamb EI, Ogden M, Rapley T, Rees EL, Wyn Roberts N, Royer-Gray E, Vance G, Wong G, Park S. General practitioner workforce sustainability to maximise effective and equitable patient care: a realist review. British Journal of General Practice 2025, epub ahead of print.
  • Brown STR, Rothwell C, Manoharan D, Burford B, Vance G. Addressing multiple long-term conditions in the undergraduate medical school curriculum: a focus group study. BMC Medical Education 2025, 25, 987.
  • Lamb EI, Burford B, Exley C, Vance G, Wass V, Alberti H. Role modelling to support careers in General Practice: A realist review protocol. BJGP Open 2024, 80(4).
  • Park S, Owen-Boukra E, Burford B, Cohen T, Duddy C, Dunn H, Fadia V, Goodman C, Henry C, Lamb EI, Ogden M, Rapley T, Rees E, Vance G, Wong G. General practitioner workforce sustainability to maximise effective and equitable patient care: a realist review protocol. BMJ Open 2024, 14(5), e075189.
  • Stelling H, Ueda M, Tilby-Jones F, Brown M, Burford B, Fisher J, Vance G, Bain R. From passive participants to proactive partners: How to engage students in the design, delivery and development of research using the principles of co-production. The Clinical Teacher 2024, 21(6), e13804.
  • Holdsworth R, Alberti H, Burford B, Farrington E, Vance G. 'Death on an industrial scale' - general practice trainees' perceptions and experiences of dying and death during COVID-19: an interpretative phenomenological analysis. BMC Medical Education 2024, 24, 1520.
  • Burford B, Grieg P, Kelleher M, Merriman C, Platt A, Richards E, Davidson N, Vance G. Interprofessional simulation as an enhancement of psychological fidelity: A focus group study of medical and nursing students. Health Science Reports 2023, 6(5), e1237.
  • Burford B, Mattick K, Carrieri D, Goulding A, Gale T, Brennan N, Vance G. How is transition to medical practice shaped by a novel transitional role? A mixed methods study. BMJ Open 2023, 13, e074387.
  • Mattick K, Goulding A, Carrieri D, Brennan N, Burford B, Vance G, Dornan T. Constraints and affordances for UK doctors‐in‐training to exercise agency: A dialogical analysis. Medical Education 2023, 57(12), 1198-1209.
  • Lamb E, Burford B, Alberti H. The impact of role modelling on the future general practitioner workforce: a systematic review. Education for Primary Care 2022, 33(5), 265-279.
  • Alao A, Burford B, Alberti H, Barton R, Moloney S, Vance G. Real-time patients' perspectives about participating in teaching consultations in primary care: A questionnaire study. Medical Teacher 2021, 43(6), 669-676.
  • Thompson N, Carter M, Crampton P, Burford B, Illing J, Morrow G. Workplace Bullying in Healthcare: A Qualitative Analysis of Bystander Experiences. The Qualitative Report 2020, 25(11).
  • Burford B, Greig P, Kelleher M, Merriman C, Platt A, Richards E, Davidson N, Vance G. Effects of a single interprofessional simulation session on medical and nursing students’ attitudes toward interprofessional learning and professional identity: A questionnaire study. BMC Medical Education 2020, 20, 65.
  • Holmes RD, Burford B, Vance G. Development and retention of the dental workforce: Findings from a regional workforce survey and symposium in England. BMC Health Services Research 2020, 20, 255.
  • Vance G, Jandial S, Scott J, Burford B. What are junior doctors for? The work of Foundation doctors in the UK: a mixed methods study. BMJ Open 2019, 9(4), e027522.

• Book Chapter

  • Burford B, Rosenthal-Stott HES. Stereotyping and the development of clinicians' professional identities. In: Mavor, KI; Platow, MJ; Bizumic, B, ed. Self and Social Identity in Educational Contexts. Routledge, 2017.

• Reports

  • Burford B, Vance G, Rothwell C, Scott J, Jones S. A Qualitative evaluation of the GMC's trainer recognition framework. Final Report. London: General Medical Council. Newcastle: Newcastle University, 2019.
  • Vance G, Burford B, Jandial S, Scott J. Identifying the work activities performed by doctors in the Foundation Programme. 2015.