A registered adult and sick children’s nurse with 30 years' NHS experience of developing and leading paediatric services I moved to academia mid-career and co-lead the Sheffield Hallam Child, Young Person and Family research group. My qualitative/mixed-methods research develops and evaluates self-management interventions. With an accrued income of £7.5+ million as lead or co-applicant, and 70+publications, I’m an experienced undergraduate and postgraduate teacher, supervised six PhDs to completion externally, examined 15 PhDs and am an external examiner at University College Dublin on the UG Child Nursing Course. I  actively promote HE/NHS research capacity building, was International Family Nursing Association President 2019-2024 and am co-Chair of the UK and IFNA Chapter.

A Professor in Child and Family Nursing and Healthcare, I am a registered adult and sick children’s nurse and qualified higher education (HE) teacher with extensive experience in NHS clinical and leadership roles, and in leading teaching and research in HE. 

My research and teaching activity focuses mainly on:

• The ways children, young people, families/carers and health professionals share management of long-term conditions
• Development/evaluation of complex, user-led self-management interventions (e.g. web and smartphone apps) to promote optimum health-care experiences for families, and optimum outcomes for patients living with long-term conditions, 
• Promoting and supporting user involvement and ethics in health-care research
• Research capacity and capability building at the HE/NHS interface 

I support active involvement of patients, parents and carers as co-researchers and advisers on research projects. The multidisciplinary, international research that I lead and contribute to includes mixed-methods, qualitative and participatory approaches, framework analysis, feasibility/full RCTs, surveys, narrative, scoping and systematic reviews; outputs have led to invitations to present international keynote and plenary lectures. I am Editorial Board member of the Journal of Family Nursing and the Journal of Pediatric Nursing, have authored 70+ manuscripts in high impact journals. I am research grant reviewer for major national and international funders including as Chair of the Lift Off Grants for Patient Facing- Research Panel and member of the Research Assessment Panel, Great Ormond Street Hospital (London) Charity,  a Specialist Advisor for the Grantsmanship Review Service for the NIHR Research Support Service Hub delivered by Imperial College London and Partners  and am a member of the UK Paediatric Nephrology Clinical Studies Group.

As recent past President (2019-2024) of the International Family Nursing Association (IFNA), I founded and co-Chair the IFNA UK and Ireland Chapter. 

I am honoured to have received national and international recognition and awards for my student education and child-health research activity and am committed to teaching healthcare professionals about the application of research evidence into practice to promote optimum clinical outcomes for patients. I have supervised six PhD students to completion and externally examined 15 PhDs.