Biography

Following my training to become a Registered Mental Health Nurse, I have enjoyed a nursing career that has enabled me to gain clinical skills and knowledge within the care of a diverse range of patient, client and service user groups across all age ranges.

From my experience as a mentor of pre-registration students and preceptor of qualified nurses of various clinical grades, I am passionate about the quality of care delivery, nurse education and the resulting patient experience.
My career within the clinical specialities of adult and adolescent mental health & substance misuse enabled me to develop my belief in ‘early intervention’ processes, developed further by training to become a Registered Specialist Community Public Health Nurse working within Portsmouth Child and Families services.

By working across a range of vulnerable service user groups, I have also gained clinical expertise within the arena’s of safeguarding children and adults, child protection including sexual exploitation and child protection conferences.
I was appointed to the role of Lecturer within the School of Health Sciences and Social Work at the University of Portsmouth in July 2016 and became part of the team responsible for the development and delivery of the BN (Hons) Adult Nursing programme. I am currently Unit Lead for both Nurse and Paramedic education and Course Lead for Mental Health Nursing.

I am a member of the Nursing and Midwifery Council, the Royal College of Nursing and Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).

Research interests

My research interests and completed projects include:

• Interventions for harm reduction with substance misusing adolescents.
• Suicidal behaviour and self harm.
• Substance Misuse, Mental Health and emotional wellbeing - adult, child and adolescent.
• Public Health and early intervention.