Principal Lecturer, Portfolio Lead for Pre-registration Nursing

I joined the University in October 2013 as a Principal Lecturer and I am the Portfolio Lead for pre-registration nursing.

My professional background is in children's nursing and as qualified nurse educator I have held a variety of teaching and curriculum development roles in relation to both pre and post registration nurse education, most recently at the Open University, so I have expertise in the development of distance learning for professional health care practice.

Children and young people's wellbeing, their experiences of health care and practice with families are the focus of my scholarship and research activities, with a particular interest in practice with fathers in health and social care. My research expertise is in qualitative methods, particularly the ethnographic approach.

Qualifications

• Doctorate in Nursing Science - Swansea University
• MA Child Studies - King's College, London
• Post Graduate Certificate in Education of Adults - University of Surrey
• BSc (Hons) Child Health - University of Manchester
• Diploma in Professional Studies in Nursing - South Bank University, London
• Registered General Nurse and Registered Sick Children's Nurse - Hammersmith Hospital and the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street, London

Teaching Role

• Portfolio Lead for Pre- registration Nursing, including adult, mental health and child fields

Research Interests

• Children, young people and families' experiences of illness and health care
• Children's nursing practice
• Children and young people's well-being
• Ethnography in health care research

Recent Research Projects

• September 2013- present: Visual analysis of images of representation of children in children's nursing texts
• 2011: Protecting, providing and participating: fathers' roles during their child's hospital stay doctoral study, Swansea University

Service to the Academic/Professional Community

• Joint co-ordinator of Royal College of Nursing Home Counties Research in Child Health (RiCH) group
• External examiner to the MSc Advanced Practice in Child Protection at Edinburgh Napier University
• Reviewer for Journal of Advanced Nursing and Issues in Comprehensive Pediatric Nursing

Recent Conference Presentations

• Higham S and Baron C (2013) A picture is worth a thousand words – or is it? Healthcare Interdisciplinary Research Conference Trinity College, Dublin. 5-7 November
• Higham S, Lohan K and Davies R (2011) Symposium on fathers experiences in relation to children's healthcare RCN International Nursing Research Conference, Harrogate. 16-18 May

Recent Publications

Journal Articles (refereed)

• Higham S and Davies R. (2013) Fathers' roles when their child is in hospital Nursing Times 109, 35, 26-7, Sep 4-10
• S. Higham and Arrowsmith V. (2013) A response to: Gardner (2012) From Novice to Expert: Benner's legacy for nurse education Nurse Education Today 32 (4) 339-40, Nurse Education Today (2013), 33, 1, pp8-9.
• S. Higham and Davies R. (2013) Protecting, providing and participating: fathers' roles during their child's unplanned hospital stay: an ethnographic study Journal of Advanced Nursing 69,6, 1390-99.
• S Higham (2009) Commentary on [Swallow, V. (2008) An exploration of mothers' and fathers' views of their identities in chronic-kidney-disease management: Parents as students? Journal of Clinical Nursing, 17, 3177-86] 18 (19) Journal of Clinical Nursing October pp. 2773–75.

Chapters

• S Higham (2011) 'The evolving role of fathers in the care of their sick children', in R. Davies and A. Davis (eds) Children and Young People's Nursing Practice and Health, Hodder Arnold, pp 31-56.
• S Higham (2010) 'Holistic practice in children's nursing: the personal, professional and maternal', in M. Robb and R. Thompson (eds) Critical Practice with Children and Young People, The Policy Press, pp.249–64.

Contact Details

Buckinghamshire campus
Oxford Road
Aylesbury
HP21 8SZ

E: sue.higham@beds.ac.uk