School of Nursing and Midwifery

I have worked in the area of learning disability since 1976. My PhD involved developing a unique, specialist bereavement counselling and support service for people with learning disabilities in North Staffordshire. With a background in learning disability nursing, my professional interests are around bereavement, end of life care, transition and loss, specifically, although not exclusively involving people with a learning disability. I am also interested in issues surrounding the realities of user and carer engagement across the research continuum.  I am currently supervising several PhD students involving topics around preferred place of death; supporting children in acute care medical areas; pain and symptom assessment of renal patients; and intermediate care. I welcome applications around the topic areas of loss, end of life care, bereavement and transition.

My research areas of interest centre on bereavement end of life care, transition and loss using predominantly qualitative research approaches. I have recently completed a collaborative research study with a colleague (Dr. Stuart Todd, University of Glamorgan) to explore perceptions of death and dying with people with learning disabilities.  I am currently developing a flexible, computer based, interactive bereavement software tool to support loss and transition for adults and children with a learning disability. I am also collaborating with colleagues, clinicians, parents and families to explore potential research around end of life care fir children and young people in Staffordshire in conjunction with a local children’s hospice.

I have received several SHA and Locality Workforce Board grants in recent years, which have enable me to work collaboratively with local clinicians, advocates, parents and people with a learning disability to develop a bespoke Toolkit for people with a learning disability coming into hospital. This project won the West Midlands Health and Social Care award for Partnership working in October 2010.

My publications generally are around bereavement, end of life care, transition and loss and health care, specifically although not exclusively for people with learning disabilities.

My lead role within the School is to develop research capacity and capability.  I teach areas of my specialism around bereavement, end of life care, transition, loss, marginalized groups and access to healthcare across all branches of nursing. I also teach aspects of research across nursing and midwifery programmes, and lead the Evidence Based Practice module as part of the BSc (Hons) Clinical Practice Course.  I co-ordinate the School Research Seminar programme , which involves a variety of sessions across the year around research and other scholarly topics facilitated by local, national and international speakers.

I co-chair the User and Carer Implementation Group within the School and Chair the Faculty of Health User and Carer group.