I am a Senior Research Associate at the University of Bristol and also a Senior Lecturer in Children’s Nursing at Oxford Brookes University. At the heart of all my work is a motivation to enhance the wellbeing of children, young people and their families.

I qualified as a Registered Children's Nurse in 2007 and worked as a children's cancer nurse in a variety of Principal Treatment Centres in the UK before moving into nursing education. I have been lecturing at Oxford Brookes University since 2013 where I strive to enable future generations of children’s nurses to flourish. 

With a clinical nursing background in children's cancer care, my research is mainly focused in this area. My MSc primary research project explored nurses' preparedness to care for children with cancer following their pre-registration nurse education. I became particularly interested in decision-making whilst working in practice, and my PhD research used hermeneutic phenomenology to explore how parents are supported by their significant others with decision-making when their child was cancer. Interpreting stories using philosophy and the arts illuminated that parents may lose confidence to make decisions, but that family and friends can reshape their confidence to advocate for their child.

I joined the University of Bristol in 2024 and currently work on a project called Create for Confidence, which is aiming to co-produce a school-based art and wellbeing programme to help prevent anxiety and depression. Creative research methods infuse this project and during this work I have strengthed my qualitative research skills, particularly in relation to undertaking research with children and young people.