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Biography
Having completed a degree in psychology and sociology at the University of Leeds, I decided to embark upon a career in children's nursing. I qualified in 2000 and worked as a children's nurse within the acute hospital setting for 7 years before joining the university of Nottingham as a lecturer in 2007. Since joining the university I have developed a keen interest in student support and student wellbeing and have been involved in setting up a number of innovative schemes such as the Bridge Network which aimed to provide peer support for students experiencing any mental health or emotional difficulties while studying at Nottingham. I am currently undertaking a professional doctorate which will explore and perhaps challenge the role of resilience within children's nursing.
Expertise Summary
Staff nurse on medical ward with special focus on cystic fibrosis.
Junior sister on acute surgical ward with special focus on cleft lip and palate surgery and plastic reconstructive surgery.
Junior sister on acute surgical ward with special focus on paediatric bowel conditions.
Co lead for clinical skills development for child field students within the undergraduate nursing curriculum.
Module lead for Psychosocial Influences on health.
Teaching Summary
Module Lead NURS2016 Psychosocial Influences on Health
Practice assessor/ Module facilitator NURS1021 Clinical Learning 2
Module facilitator NURS2014 Clinical Learning 3
Academic assessor… read more
Research Summary
EdD project:
STUDY QUESTION:
"Understanding and Challenging resilience in Children's Nursing".
STUDY DESIGN:
Interpretive Study which borrows from Interpretive phenomenology and aims to contribute to a more sophisticated understanding of resilience.
PURPOSE
To enhance our understanding of how children's nurses conceptualise resilience, inclusive of a consideration of whether such understandings influence the development of personal and professional identity in children's nurses. This project does not aim to build resilience, rather it deliberately focusses upon meaning so aims to contribute to a more sophisticated understanding of resilience as it is conceptualised and described by children's nurses. It also aims to understand how the phenomena of resilience influences the professional identity of and the daily lived experience of children's nurses.
PRIMARY OBJECTIVE
• To explore how children's nurses describe resilience
• To explore how children's nurses experience resilience in their professional lives
• To explore how resilience is incorporated into the identity of a children's nurse.
• To explore how Covid 19 has influenced professional identity and resilience for children's nurses
(* Where the term children's nurses is used it refers to qualified children's nurses but also student nurses training to become children's nurses)
SECONDARY OBJECTIVES
Growing concern over the uncritical use of the term 'resilience' leads me to ask a number of further questions for example:
• What does it mean to be resilient in contemporary health? (pre and post Covid 19)
• What does this resilience look like?
• What constitutes an act of resilience?
• Is there a pressure to be resilient?
• How easy is it to be resilient on a day to day basis?
• What are the implications if one deems themselves or others not to be resilient?
• How might Covid 19 have influenced the above issues?
CONTRIBUTION:
With a lack of literature pertaining to resilience in children's nurses, an increasing focus on resilience within undergraduate nursing curricula, increasing pressure for nurses to demonstrate resilience in their daily lives, and more recently, the unprecedented challenge presented by Covid 19, a more sophisticated understanding of this phenomena, as it is experienced by children's nurses, is needed. Interpretive studies have the potential to contribute to knowledge that is practically relevant to nursing practice. While this study may have limited benefits to participants in the short term, it could lay the foundations for future studies which aim to build or enhance resilience in a more meaningful and practically applicable way.
Recent Publications
DAWSON, P, COOK, L, HOLLIDAY, L and REDDY, H, eds., 2012. Oxford handbook of clinical skills for children's and young people's nursing Oxford : Oxford University Press.
Past Research
Holliday, L., Carter, T., Reddy, H., Clarke, L., Pearson, M., Felton, A. (2020) Shared learning to improve the care for young people and mental health within nurse education (SHYNE). Improving attitudes, confidence and self efficacy. Nurse Education in Practice Vol 46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nepr.2020.102793
Summary:
Preparing students for the complexities of practice is an ongoing challenge for pre-registration nurse education. One such complexity is the increase in children and young people with mental health problems. Pre-registration student nurses from child and mental health specialisms from one University participated in an innovative simulation session, whereby actors from a youth theatre group simulated young people admitted to an acute non-mental health hospital setting for treatment of self-harm injuries. This study used an uncontrolled pre and post design to determine the impact of the session on student nurses' attitudes, confidence and self-efficacy when caring for young people who self-harm.
Attitudes towards self-harm were measured using a 13 item self-report questionnaire.
Confidence was measured through Likert scale responses.
Self-efficacy for working with children and young people who have self-harmed was measured through an adapted version of the Self-Efficacy Towards Helping (SETH) scale.
In total 101 student nurses took part in the study and 99% completed post simulation outcome measures. At post-session, the students reported a statistically significant improvement in attitudes, self-efficacy and confidence towards children and young people who self-harm.
A lack of confidence is frequently reported in the literature when caring for this client group in practice settings. Improvements in attitudes, confidence and self-efficacy can positively impact individual nursing practice. Furthermore the simulation literature indicates that the skills consolidated using such an educational approach are taken forward into clinical practice.
While broad claims of success should be avoided, it is promising to find a learning method that is effective in addressing a contemporary and complex health issue.