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4. Mark Tyrrell

BIOGRAPHY

Research Interests

My immediate research strategy is to complete my PhD and to establish and develop collaborations with likeminded researchers internationally in order to establish a foundation for my future career as a researcher at post doctoral level. The following is a summary of how I am strategising to achieve this:

I registered for my PhD on a part-time basis at UCC in January 2008. I subsequently applied for and was successful in attaining sabbatical leave for 6 months to progress my research and I have recently competed for and won a €50,000 School of Nursing & Midwifery PhD Fellowship which will enable me to pursue my studies full-time for the next year. I have also submitted a bid for a Health Research Board Fellowship and if successful, this would enable me to continue my PhD studies on a full-time basis until completion of the thesis.

Early in my sabbatical leave, I travelled to Padua, Italy to meet with Professor Kathleen Buckwalter, one of the originators of the model I am testing in my PhD study, and to discuss my doctoral research with her and to seek her support and advice. She was attending a conference there. I subsequently spent one month of my Sabbatical Leave at the University of Iowa College of Nursing in the United States collaborating with Professor Buckwalter and the other nursing scholar who developed the model I am testing in my PhD study, Professor Geri Hall. I have also met with other prominent researchers in this field at Iowa. The two originators of the model have also expressed an interest in collaborating with me in research endeavours in the future, after the completion of my PhD and my supervisor and head of school has extended an invitation to Professor Buckwalter to visit UCC. Professor Buckwalter has offered to validate my adaptation of the model for the internet and has offered to host a second visit for me at the University of Iowa in 2009 when my internet adaptation of the model is ready for validation and piloting. (I am the first researcher to adapt the Progressively Lowered Stress Theshold Model of Dementia for delivery over the internet and the two originators of the model have offered their support to my efforts in this regard). On completion of my PhD, my research strategy will be to seek funding (hopefully in collaboration with my colleagues at Iowa), to undertake further research in my field of study at post-doctoral level. I would also hope to gain experience in supervising other PhD students who wish to conduct doctoral research in my field.

My main contribution to my discipline is the collaborative nature of the research I have conducted in the field of dementia care. The study I conducted into the effectiveness of massage and aromatherapy in diffusing agitation behaviours in elderly people with dementia was carried out in collaboration with clinical colleagues at the research site. Clinical staff who were trained and accredited in massage techniques implemented the interventions while other clinical staff were trained in data collection. The more recent study of the transition of people with dementia to a new dementia unit also actively involved staff at the unit, but in addition, actively involved relatives and even the persons with dementia themselves in the research process in that they were interviewed by researchers. A study for which I am principal investigator on deliberate self harm, is also being carried out in collaboration with health service staff (this study is currently being prepared for publication). This I believe signifies my aim as a researcher, to conduct research that has a strong clinical focus, and that gives clinical staff a sense of ownership of the research by actively involving them in the process, which will also hopefully, increase the likelihood of them implementing the findings in practice. It also signifies the principle of care recipient (patient) involvement in the research process. While the contribution of my doctoral work has yet to be determined in that it will not be completed for another two years, I am the first researcher internationally to adapt this tried and tested intervention for internet use and this I believe is potentially a significant contribution because if it works, it would mean that the intervention could be delivered to a greater number of dementia caregivers at a fraction of the cost of the traditional in-home delivery of the intervention. 

My top three research outputs are:

1. McCarthy, G., Tyrrell, MP., Cronin, C. (2002) National Study of Turnover in Nursing & Midwifery. Dublin: Department of Health & Children. (180 pages)

2. Tyrrell, MP. (2003) The Effectiveness of Massage and Aromatherapy in Diffusing Agitation Behaviours in Elderly People with Dementia.

3. Myers, E., Linehan, J., Lynch, D., McCann, C and Tyrrell, MP. (2007). A Study to Examine the Effects on Residents of Moving from a Traditional Care of the Older Person Ward Environment to a New Dementia Care Unit. Cork: Health Service Executive (South). (106 pages).

The National Study on Turnover is significant because it came at a time when Ireland was for the first time in its nursing history, having serious difficulties in recruiting and retaining nurses and midwives for the Irish health services. The study identified factors that could help retain nurses/midwives and the reasons why nurses/midwives were leaving the service. The findings were subsequently used by the nursing policy division at the Department of Health and Children to inform their strategy on nursing manpower planning. The research team has also had numerous requests from international researchers for permission to use the research instruments that we developed for the National Study on Turnover. 

The study on massage and aromatherapy was significant for me in that it was the first time that I as a researcher succeeded in attaining independent finding for a study. On the basis of the significance of the findings, I was invited to give a keynote address at Trinity College Dublin’s international nursing research conference. Its main contribution to my discipline is that the statistically significant findings gave dementia care nurses an intervention that could assist them in managing one particular problem behaviour in dementia, namely agitation. Other research has since confirmed the findings.

The third study (Myers et al) came about as a result of my involvement in the Clonakilty Dementia HSE Partnership. I was invited by the HSE to become a member of this partnership in 2005 and sat on a number of committees and presented a number of staff education workshops. The main aim of the partnership was to enhance dementia care services at Clonakilty Community Hospital and to further staff education and training. On foot of my recommendation to the partnership steering group that an evaluation study be carried out to determine the effectiveness of a new dementia unit that was developed at Clonakilty, the group succeeded in securing some research funding from the Alzheimer’s Society and the HSE. This study became the catalyst for my PhD study. It has also been published by the HSE as a 200 page report, and the new dementia unit at Clonakilty won the Docherty Award in 2006, which was presented by Professor Brendan Drumm of the HSE.

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