Isabella Robbins
Research fellow: NIHR Medical Crises in Older People Programme, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences
Contact
Biography
Dr Isabella Robbins trained as state registered nurse, qualifying in 1983, in particular studying oncology and haematology, which made her want to understand the context of health and illness in people's lives. This led her to undertake a Sociology degree at the University of Nottingham, and she received studentship funding for an MA and PhD from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), which focussed on discourses of mother's decision making in childhood vaccinations. She then moved on to thinking about older people, using a qualitative method route that allows her to explore and understand many perspectives to the same phenomena. She is now in her first post-doctorate position at the university.
Expertise Summary
Keywords:
Sociology, qualitative research methods, discourses on the power of knowledge, particular theorists such as Michel Foucault and Erving Goffman
Teaching Summary
Teaches sociology first year undergraduates in Understanding Contemporary Society.
Teaches third year undergraduates in Work Employment and Society.
Recently taught on MA Issues in… read more
Research Summary
Dr Robbins is currently working on the MCOP programme, specifically the Care Home work stream. Using qualitative methods, she is concerned with understanding the delivery of health care in UK care… read more
Current Research
Dr Robbins is currently working on the MCOP programme, specifically the Care Home work stream. Using qualitative methods, she is concerned with understanding the delivery of health care in UK care homes, and this work is currently undergoing analysis. Read more about MCOP
She is also interested in researching:
- How societies look after their most dependent people, and how they judge themselves according to this criterion.
- The Care Home work stream, which is about understanding the delivery of healthcare and describing the phenomena, since it hasn't yet been described sufficiently.
- Primary care, which is fragmented around elderly people, and care home work is often idiosyncratic.
- Understanding systems and processes and how health professionals work within these complex relationships.