Lecturer in Early Years Practice
My professional background spans over 30 years and I have experience practicing as a nurse, midwife, health visitor and child protection advisor and lecturer in nursing. In particular, I have substantial professional experience working with and safeguarding the health and wellbeing of children and families underpinned with an MSc in Nursing and Applied Education. I am a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a registered Nurse Teacher with the NMC. I have experience as an NMC Registrant Visitor for the approval and monitoring of NMC approved programmes and have recently been appointed as an External Examiner for SCPHN Programmes at Leeds Beckett University.
I joined the University of Stirling as a fulltime permanent Lecturer with a focus on the Early Years at the beginning of December 2014.
I am Programme Director for the MSc Early Years Practice (Health Visiting) and lead on curriculum design and development and the support and co-ordination of the programme team. I am module co-ordinator for several undergraduate and postgraduate modules: Principles and Practice of Child and Family Health and Wellbeing (SCQF Level 11); Health Visiting in Practice (SCQF Level 10); Health Visiting in Practice Conversion (SCQF Level 10). I also contribute to curriculum development and enhancement, teaching and assessment on the BSc Nursing programme.
My research interests are in the field of vulnerable children, child protection, children's mental health and public health nursing (health visiting and school nursing). I am particularly interested in interventions to improve the health and wellbeing of vulnerable children and young people, and the role of the school nurse. For my Masters dissertation I conducted a small scale research study to explore the role of the school nurse in child protection.
I commenced my part time PhD within the School of Health Sciences in October 2015. The title of my study is "Exploring the work of the school nurse in supporting primary school age children's mental health". It is a mixed methods study comprising of two sequential phases. Data collection for both phases is complete and data analysis is in the final stages. Submission is planned for Summer 2023.
Registered Community Prescriber
Registered Nurse (Adult)
Nursing and Midwifery Council
Registered Teacher
Specialist Community Public Health Nurse-Health Visitor