My training and experience as an adult (physical) and mental health nurse in the NHS have been a key influence on my teaching and scholarly activity/research at the University of Manchester. Since 1997 I have made significant contributions to pre and post registration clinical education to equip nurses and other health/social care professionals to provide high quality holistic care for people with long term mental health problems.  

My teaching portfolio is a broad one spanning undergraduate, postgraduate taught and research programmes within the Division of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work (SoNMSW). 

Although employed on a teaching-focused contract I have always participated in research and I have a sustained record of publication with over 60 manuscripts in peer review and professional journals as well as service user and University publications many of which are teaching related.    

My other key interests are in Public and Patient Involvement (PPI) in education and research. During the past 15 years I have formed a close working relationship with members of the Hearing Voices Network (http://www.hearing-voices.org/) and Connect Support (http://www.connectsupport.org/ CS - (organisation for carers of people with serious mental health problems). Together we have developed and published a model of co-education where members of the HVN and CS work alongside our teaching team to deliver workshops and masterclasses. These sessions have been consistently well evaluated with students making comments such as “I have never felt so compassionate for someone in my life as I did when I heard K’s story it has helped me to connect and empathise more genuinely with service users in practice”(UG student, 2014). We have also developed and published a method for assessing student’s clinical skills in psychological therapy  by them interviewing a member of HVN or CS whilst being videotaped. In order to accurately rate student’s skills we published a reliable and valid scale. 

I trained as a Registered General Nurse in 1983 then undertook post basic training in mental health nursing in 1987. I completed a Diploma in Psychosocial Interventions for Psychosis (Thorn); BSc (Hons) and MPhil all part time whilst working in community mental health services. In 1997 I started work as a Lecturer at the University of Manchester where I have contributed to teaching on the COPE psychosocial education programmes. Between 2000 - 2005 I was Programme Director to the COPE undergraduate programme. From 2008-2012 I was mental health branch leader to the pre registration Bachelor of Nursing Programme. From 2015 - 2022 I was Programme Director of the MSc in Advanced Practice Interventions in Mental Health.

My research interests center on improving the physical health of people with a diagnosis of psychosis. I also have considerable experience of developing mental health training programmes for delivery in both developed and developing world settings. Since 1995 I have a consistent track record of publication and both journal papers and edited textbooks.

I have participated in two large-scale research projects 1) Smoking Cessation Intervention for Severe Mental Ill Health Trial (SCIMITAR): a definitive randomised evaluation of a bespoke smoking cessation service Principal investigator – Prof Simon Gilbody (University of York) and 2) The HELPER programme (HEalthy Living and Prevention of Early Relapse): Principal investigator   - Professor Matthew Marshall. Both studies successfully recruited to target and the outcomes have now been published by the NIHR abd in peer review journals.

In 2008 I completed a part time PhD the focus of which was closely aligned to the content of my substantive teaching related to the use of holistic approaches to improve the Physical and Mental wellbeing of people with Serious Mental Health Problems. My PhD was published in three papers and presented at a number of national and international conferences as well as at student and service user/carer events.

Prior to 2008 I was involved in reserach to evaluate the outcomes of psychosocial intevention education on students knowledge, attitudes, levels of emotional burnout and clinical skills. As well as the oucomes of care for patients and families that our students worked with. 

I have been teaching at the University of Manchester since 1997.  During the first 10 years of my career at the university, I mainly taught post-registration mental health students on the Collaboration on Psychosocial Education (COPE) programme.  Although I still teach on the Psychosis pathway of the APIMH programme which evolved from COPE, during the last seven years my more substantive teaching role has been on the BNurs programme where I have been introducing some of the approaches to evidence-based approaches we developed on the COPE programme.  Most recently in line with my scholarly activity I have developed an education programme about holistic approaches to improving the physical and mental well-being of individuals with serious mental health problems. 

I also have extensive experience of teaching internationally and have delivered workshops in South Africa, Ireland, North America, Israel, Lithuania, Finland, Portugal, Germany, Italy and Indonesia.

Professor Max Marshall, The University of Manchester

Professor Simon Gilbody, The University of York.

Dr Marrianne Reid, Free State University, South Africa

Former Fellow of the European Association of Nursing Science (EANS)

Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA)

Advancing Quality Alliance (AQaU) consultant

Registered Nurse Teacher with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC)

• Quantitative research methods
• Evaluation of complex health care interventions
• Undertaking systematic reviews

PhD, MPhil, BSc (Hons), DPSN, RGN,RMN, RNT, PGcertED,  SFHEA

In 2014 and 2015 I was invited to speak to the “time to change society” this mental health anti-stigma initiative is being led by students from the Manchester Metropolitan University but is also open to students and staff from the University of Manchester.

In 2012 I was invited by the Forum of University Deans of South Africa (FUNDISA) to provide mentorship to a nurse academic Dr Marianne Reid from the Free State University. Bloemfontein. This was under the auspices of the PLUME project which aimed to build research capability in South African Nurses by linking them with a more experienced research mentor. In June 2013 I visited Pretoria having been invited by FUNDISA to participate in a mock grant review exercise in which 20 mentees had their grant proposals reviewed. Dr Reid’s proposal about ‘health communication in type 2 diabetes’ was one of only four to be supported by FUNDISA for submission  to the funding body the National Research Service (NRS).  Dr Reid is now beginning to develop a programme of research about health communication, she had secured further funding and has 7 Masters students and 3 academic colleagues working with her on the project. Dr Reid is presenting her work at an International conference in 2015 and has submitted a paper for publication in a peer reviewed journal.

For the past 15 years I have developed a close working relationship with members of the Hearing Voices Network (HVN) (a self-help organization for people who hear voices) and Connect Support (a local organisation which supports carers of people with Serious Mental Health problems).  Members of the HVN and Connect Support have made an extremley positive contribution to our students education by teaching on both UG and PG programmes, contributing to the assessment of studesnt clinical skills and inputing to curriculum review and development. As part of a reciprocal and collaborative relationship myself and other collegues have undertaken talks and presentations at group meetings and fund raising events organised by the two organisations.