My work straddles both education innovation and research in gerontological nursing. There is an explicit focus on building the specialist and general workforce capability to deliver consistent high-quality care and services for older people. I have a particular interest in optimising care in acute hospitals for older adults living with frailty and or dementia. I have a broad range of research experience including intervention studies, evaluation research and quality improvement.
My current research projects include a non-randomised feasibility study of a dementia communication intervention for pre-registration nurses; a pilot study of a regional education-career pathway to improve retention and competency in early career gerontologic nurses; and nurse-led quality improvement to increase nutrition intake in older adults during hospitalisation.
Previous activity includes undertaking the first national prevalence study of elder abuse among community-dwelling older adults in Ireland (http://bit.ly/2nE7Tg1). I have written on topics including gerontologic nurse education, elder abuse, older people in emergency departments, prescribing and deprescribing practice, as well as extended professional roles for nurses such as medication and ionising radiation prescribing.
Biography
I was appointed to the Professor of Clinical Nursing in Older Person’s Healthcare in 2017, a joint post between the School of Nursing and Midwifery University College Cork and the South/SouthWest Hospital Group (SSWHG). Prior to this post, I worked as a Senior Lecturer with a specialist interest in older people care in the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, King’s College London (2013-2017) and was a lecturer in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, University College Dublin (2008-2013).My work straddles both education innovation and research in gerontological nursing. There is an explicit focus on building the specialist and general workforce capability to deliver consistent high-quality care and services for older people. I have a particular interest in optimising care in acute hospitals for older adults living with frailty and or dementia. I have a broad range of research experience including intervention studies, evaluation research and quality improvement.
My current research projects include a non-randomised feasibility study of a dementia communication intervention for pre-registration nurses; a pilot study of a regional education-career pathway to improve retention and competency in early career gerontologic nurses; and nurse-led quality improvement to increase nutrition intake in older adults during hospitalisation.
Previous activity includes undertaking the first national prevalence study of elder abuse among community-dwelling older adults in Ireland (http://bit.ly/2nE7Tg1). I have written on topics including gerontologic nurse education, elder abuse, older people in emergency departments, prescribing and deprescribing practice, as well as extended professional roles for nurses such as medication and ionising radiation prescribing.