Publications

It's about time I collected together my academic research and commentary, published in a range of periodicals and science journals. Hopefully something of interest for you here!

If you're an editor and would like to commission an article please message me on Twitter. I have interests in a wide variety of nursing topics, including ethics, law, research, e-health, workforce policy, complexity and implementation science, and clinical education.

COVID-19 and nurses’ right to refuse to treat: when is it justified?

In which I am interviewed about the ethics of refusal to treat, related to PPE shortages during the pandemic. Lots cut from what I said to the interviewer (understandably) but I think I managed to get across how a utilitarian, Bayesian risk assessment is about the best we could do, despite the large uncertainties of both probabilities and outcomes. Also cut was my expanding on why action/inaction on treatment isn't a new issue in nursing, by reference to the Charlie Gard case where care staff received death threats, and The Troubles in Northern Ireland where nurses treated paramilitary from both sides, at great risk to themself and their families.

How to approach ethical dilemmas in a pandemic

In which I interview professor of nursing and care ethics Ann Gallagher, on the issue of practical ethics during a pandemic emergency. I have the greatest of respect for Ann in all her efforts to bring ethical decision making tools to frontline practice, so this one was a real privilege to be involved in, during a time of great need.

Belonging and loss in the transition to newly qualified nursing

In which I talk about how weird it was to suddenly come to a halt at the end of my sign-off placement. This one really shows why I try to write about the difficult things others might not, as it's the opposite of the expected celebratory mood. Yet since this was published I've seen many student nurses talk on social media about the sense of uncertainty and loss at the end of the course, wondering if they're alone. Much student writing is confident and self-promoting, so I tried very hard not to indulge in that for my BJN columns.

Can a reset of digital literacy standards improve nursing practice?

In which I lament the lack of firm detail in the new educational NMC Standards on digital literacy. What should nurses actually be able to accomplish with technology? The NMC declined a great opportunity to provide a minimum standard. Meanwhile there are research nurses doing amazing things with bleeding-edge applications of technology like machine learning, so how do we bridge the gap? I'm still a little sad the sub-editor removed (for layout reasons) the jokey part of the title referring to the NMC "turning it off and on again" to fix the problem.

Reflections on a sandwich

In which I use a personal anecdote about a terrible vending machine sandwich to talk about how desperately important holistic wellbeing is for healthcare staff. Also some stuff on the challenges of maintaining health and nutrition within shift-based work. To this day, I am still annoyed about that sandwich and the lack of a hot meal. I really needed some comfort food right then.

Registration awaits, but what shape of NHS waits with it?

In which I doubt Jeremy Hunt's promises for nursing recruitment because he already tried that deception with GPs and failed. And then I get worried about the depleted workforce situation I'm about to step into, as a newly-qualified nurse.

New standards and framework will map out the future of nursing

In which I am disheartened that nursing students are not learning how to learn as the first priority on their course, while being fed nonsense like the "learning styles" neuro-myth. I still think we should have a more comprehensive four-year nursing degree like Portugal. If only we didn't need as many nurses as possible, as soon as possible.

Mitigating perceptual error with ‘look, listen, feel’

In which I talk about sources of error in basic nursing assessment, how I got it wrong after some time away and reflections on how to stop it happening again. Went through three or four drafts: publicly discussing your practice failures to role-model vulnerability is not easy!

Your life in the balance sheet--accounting for bursary cuts

In which I was the only nursing commentator to point out that the student bursary cuts were deeply tied to austerity politics and Conservative Party infighting, without saving any taxpayer money. Years later, in a Parliamentary debate on reforming higher education funding, politicians would belatedly exclaim how shocked they were to discover the same accounting sleight-of-hand I wrote about here. Also the best article title puns I ever snuck past the editors.

Perspectives: Nursing Student Funding Debate

In which I went to a debate at London South Bank University on the bursary cuts and reported what people said, as faithfully as I could from a verbatim recording. Even though at least one of them doubted that afterwards. Sorry, I tried my best!