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Biography
Frank Coffey graduated from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in 1987. He undertook his early training in Emergency Medicine in Ireland and came to Nottingham as a Senior Registrar in 1994, taking up his role as a Consultant at Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS Trust in 1999.
Frank is Head of Service of the Emergency Department at NUH and Director of DREEAM (Department of Research and Education in Emergency medicine, Acute medicine and Major trauma), an NHS academic unit, which he founded in 2015. DREEAM has been recognized as an area of 'outstanding practice' in recent CQC reviews. He was appointed Honorary Professor in Urgent and Emergency Care at Nottingham Trent University in 2020.
Frank is a pioneer in the development of non-medical roles. He established the Emergency Nurse Practitioner service in the ED at NUH in 2000. He joined the School of Health Sciences at the University of Nottingham in 2006 and developed the MSc in Advanced Clinical Practice (ACP) for which he is Clinical Director.. He is Medical Lead for ACP at NUH and chairs the Nottinghamshire ICS Regional ACP Strategy Group.
Frank is research lead in Emergency Medicine at NUH and has been Principal or Chief Investigator for numerous studies and an author on many peer reviewed publications. The ED at NUH is one of the most successful emergency medicine research delivery units in the UK, with a team of 6 research nurses. Frank also leads the East Midlands National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Comprehensive Research Network (CRN) Trauma and Emergency Care (TEC) Specialty Group. He supervises PhD, Masters and medical and nursing student researchers
Frank has a national and international reputation in the field of Simulation Based Education (SBE), and in 2016 was made a Fellow for the Association of Simulated Practice in Healthcare (ASPiH) for 'services to the Simulated Patient Methodology'. He is Simulation Lead for the East Midlands School of Emergency Medicine. In 2014-15 he was seconded as Professor / inaugural 'Educator in Residence' at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) Medical School in 2014-15 and was subsequently a Visiting Professor there. He oversaw the creation of a simulated patient (SP) Programme at RCSI that is now successfully embedded in the curriculum. He leads the Critical Illness Modules for UoN final year medical students at NUH
Frank has a passion for quality patient and a major interest in analgesia in the ED. He recently co-edited Pan-European Guidelines for the assessment and management of acute pain in emergency care. These were published by the European Society for Emergency Medicine (EUSEM).
The NHS Long Term Plan has a strong emphasis on health promotion /prevention in areas such as cigarette smoking, problem drinking, obesity and mental health. Frank has a a long time interest in this area, and from 2000-2018 led IMPS (Injury Minimization Project for Schools) one of the biggest prevention programmes in Nottingham. A collaboration with the City Council, over 40,000 Year 6 school children visited the ED for a tour and educational sessions, as part of this injury prevention programme. This year ,he was successful with colleagues in NUH and Public Health in a £220,000 capital bid to Public Health England to create an innovative 'Prevention Hub' in DREEAM / ED, where practitioners working in different fields of of health promotion / prevention will be able to co-ordinate their expertise and activities in a cohesive and synergistic fashion. He is currently chief investigator for 2 prevention research programmes - IBAFirst and SCALES.
Frank's passions outside medicine include sports and music. He has 5 sons who share his love of football. He has been a doctor at Nottingham Forest for nearly 20 years and follows the Irish football team around the world.
Expertise Summary
Urgent and Emergency Care
Advanced Clinical Practice
Clinical skills education
Healthcare education
Simulation-based education
Simulated patients
Inter-professional education
Health Promotion / Prevention
Analgesia in the emergency setting
Leadership