RoyalCollege of Nursing Research Institute

RCN Research Institute
Staff biographies
Professor Kate Seers, Director
I am Director of the Royal College of Nursing Research Institute, which forms an exciting strategic alliance between the Royal College of Nursing and The University of Warwick. Prior to this I was Head of Research at the Royal College of Nursing from 1987. My research interests include; pain and its management, evidence based health care and knowledge translation, systematic reviews, RCTs, qualitative methodologies and using mixed methods.

Paul Kent, PA to the Director/Centre Administrator
My role is to provide professional, confidential and comprehensive administrative support to the RCNRI Director and the Research Team, and to manage effective administration systems within the Research Centre. I have workedat the Royal College of Nursing Research Institute since Oct 07.Prior to this post I worked for a national Charity and the Independent Police Complaints Commission. In April 2006, I left the Royal Air Force after almost 22 years service as a Personnel Administrator, serving in varied posts from the British Embassy in WashingtonDC, a remote Radar site in the Falkland Islands, the Ministry of Defence in London and several main operational bases throughout the world.

Jo Brett, Research Fellow
I am currently working on two studies: A structured review of evidence on the conceptualisation, measurement, impact and outcomes of patient and public involvement in health and social care research; and POPPY (Parents of Premature Parents – Your Needs), assessing the support needs, information needs and communication needs of parents that have had a premature baby.
I previously worked as a Research Fellow for the RCN National Collaborating Centre on the Prevention and Treatment of Osteoporosis Guideline for NICE. From 1994 to 2004 I worked as a Research Fellow at the Department of Primary Health Care, OxfordUniversity. The research here included a study of the psychological consequences of routine mammography and development of breast awareness training resources for Practice Nurses, men’s experiences and GP’s views of asymptomatic PSA testing for prostate cancer, and the development of the patient information sheet for the Prostate Cancer Risk Management Programme. I also co-authored a HTA report on the impact of screening on future health promoting behaviours and health beliefs.

Jacqueline Chandler-Oatts, Research Fellow (contract ended June 2009)
My background is in general and psychiatric nursing within the NHS and the voluntary sector. I am currently a research fellow on a project evaluating guideline implementation strategies. My research interests are in Mental Health, guideline implementation, knowledge utilisation and evidence based practice.
Dr Andy Gibson, Research Fellow(contract ended June 2009)
Andy worked for Derbyshire Social Services as a Care Manager for 8 years. He subsequently undertook a Masters in Applied Research and Quality Evaluation at SheffieldUniversity. His PhD employed an ethnographic approach to explore the relationship between health, social status and social capital in a once relatively prosperous but now 'disadvantaged' working class community. Andy's research interests are in the areas of user involvement, the funding, organisation, and delivery of health care and health inequalities. He is currently involved in research which is exploring Patient and Public Involvement in the Commissioning of NHS Services for the NHS Centre for Involvement.
Andy also works as the co-ordinator of UNTRAP (Universities/User Teaching and Research Action Partnership). UNTRAP members are service users and carers who are interested in contributing to research and /or teaching. It is apartnership between users of health and social care services and carers,the Universities of Warwick and Coventry and the NHS. When UNTRAP receives requests for service users and carers to be involved in teaching, research or consultation meetings, it passeson information about these opportunities to UNTRAP members. People can then decide whether or not they want to take part.UNTRAP alsoplays a part in developing good practice in partnership working, for example, through developing a code of conduct and guidelines on payment for participants.
Dr Claire Hawkes, Research Fellow (contract ended June 2009)
I am a Research Fellow with RoyalCollege of Nursing Research Institute. I am currently working on a project evaluating the effectiveness of three clinical guideline implementation strategies, using a mixed methods approach. My clinical background is in critical care nursing (cardiac and general intensive care). I have held a mixture of research and teaching posts at other UKUniversities before joining the Royal College of Nursing Research Institute. My research interests are: Knowledge translation in health care contexts, health care service delivery and organisation and critical care.
Dr Kirstie Haywood, Senior Research Fellow
I am a Senior Research Fellow at the RCN Research Institute, leading on the Patient Reported Outcome (PRO) work-stream. Prior to this role I was Co-Director of the Patient-Reported Health Instruments Group, National Centre for Health Outcomes Development, University of Oxford.
My research interests include: patient reported outcomes - how the patient communicates their experience of health and healthcare; the development, appropriate use and evaluation of patient reported outcome measures (PROMs); measuring quality in healthcare; quality of life in clinical trials and routine practice; structured reviews; survey research; epidemiology – exploring the patient reported burden of disease. My current and future work aims to provide an informed and scientific focus to promote and extend appropriate use of patientreported outcomes and related methods for supporting patient participation in health care evaluation within research, routine practice, and healthcare quality assessment. I am currently involved in research projects across a range of specialties including rheumatology, continence, chronic fatigue, and older people.

Dr Sandy Herron-Marx, Principal Research Fellow(contract ends August 2009)
Sandy joined the University of Warwick in August 2007 as a Principal Research Fellow and Learning Programme Manager supporting the work of the NHS Centre for Involvement's (NCI) Research and Evidence and the Learning and Support Domains. Prior to thisshe was a Lecturer in Nurse Education at the University of Birmingham. Sheresearched in the area of patient and public involvement (PPI) in the NHS and developed, implemented and evaluated learning and support PPI material for both NHS and Social Care staff and Citizens (patients, carers and the public). Sandy's PhD is on the lay perspectives of mental health and has over 15 years experience of working and researching in the field of PPI.

Dr Carole Mockford Research Fellow (contract ends August 2009)
I am a research fellow currently involved in a systematic review on patient and public involvement and the healthcare services. Prior to this I was a research officer in the Department of Public Health at the University of Oxford. My research interests include: instrument design using psychometric analytical techniques, the use of both qualitative and quantitative methodology, RCTs, systematic reviews, carers of people with motor neurone disease, intensive health visiting programmes and parenting programmes.

Dr Natasha Posner, Research Fellow
Natasha is a PI and working as an RF on a NIHR Research for Patient Benefit funded project ‘The need for urgent care: the perspectives and pathways of people with a long term condition’; and the CI on a pilot project funded by the Insulin Dependent Diabetes Trust ‘Patient Choice in the Treatment of Diabetes - the role of information provision’. She is also working with the National CFS/ME Observatory and Action for ME on ‘The pattern of disability and receipt of formal support in CFS/ME’ application to the Big Lottery Fund. In a part-time capacity, she is a tutor on the LSHTM Distance Learning Public Health Masters programme - supervising a research project. Her current research interests are focussed on health care related long term conditions, particularly diabetes, CFS/ME and mental illness, and on human rights in relation to health.

Dr Sophie Staniszewska, Senior Research Fellow
Sophie is a Senior Research Fellow at the RCN Research Institute and leads work around patient and public involvement, experiences and evaluation (www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/shss/rcn/research). Sophie is also seconded as Principal Research Fellow and Director of the Evidence for Practice Programme of Research at NHS Centre for Involvement. ( Sophie has carried out a range of externally funded studies looking at different aspects of users’ experiences of healthcare. Sophie leads the POPPY Project which is examining parents’ experiences of having a pre-term baby and has integral user involvement throughout the study ( We recently completed the PRIME study which developed the first data-base of patient-based evidence which describes the experiences of people living with ME/CFS ( We have recently started a study examining the impact of user involvement on research, which is being led by Jo Brett and funded by UKCRC. Sophie chairs the Evidence, Knowledge and Learning Group of INVOLVE and is a member of the Main Group of INVOLVE. Sophie reviews for a range of funding bodies and international journals and supervises a number of PhD students.

Dr Liz Tutton, Research Fellow (contract ends August 2009)
I currently hold two posts, Research Fellow at the RCN Research Institute at the University of Warwick and Senior Research Fellow at the Trauma Unit, JohnRadcliffeHospital based in the Kadoorie Centre. I have spent many years in nursing practice in a range of clinical areas and as a Principal Lecturer running undergraduate and post graduate degrees. My interests focus on multidisciplinary staff, older people and people suffering acute traumatic injury. A range of qualitative methodologies have been utilised such as ethnography and action research. My research interests are exploring patient and staff experiences of care through core concepts such as comfort, participation, and hope.

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Version 2 – Jul 09