Dr Nicki Walsh PhD, MSc, BSc (Hons) DN, BSc (Hons), SPQDN, RNT, FHEA, PGCHE, RN (Adult) & MIHPE
With over 17 years’ experience of teaching and learning within Higher Education (at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels) and a Fellow of the Higher Education Institute, Nicki is currently the Programme Lead for Health and Social Care programmes at BGU, the undergraduate BSc (Hons) Health and Social Care and MA in Health and Social Care Leadership.
Nicki’s clinical career as a Registered Nurse (Adult) saw her specialise in orthopaedics and trauma followed by District Nursing (with Specialist Practitioner Qualification) and then as Diabetes Specialist Nurse and remains a Registered Nurse. Her areas of teaching and learning reflect both her clinical and research experience. Her PhD focused on the Continuous Professional Development to Support People with Diabetes by considering the perspectives of Nurses working in UK General Practice. Other areas of research include public health (Nicki is a Member of the Institute for Health Promotion and Education), evidence-based practice utilisation, practitioner research and education as well as health and social care leadership. Nicki has published in national and international journals as well as having presented at a variety of national and international conferences across a range of subject areas.
Related Courses
Nicki has been a Registered Nurse (Adult) since 1994 with a varied clinical career starting in Orthopaedics and Trauma then moving to District Nursing in 1999, where she attained her Specialist Practitioner Qualification (SPQ). In 2003, she become a Diabetes Nurse Specialist, and set up the original community nurse-led service in South Lincolnshire. Nicki was one of the first non-medical prescribers in the county and continued to teach this to a variety of clinicians including nurses and pharmacists in her former role at Lincoln.
Nicki’s previous research has looked at effective discharge within orthopaedics settings, moving to looking at the utility of evidence in the community clinical practice setting for her MSc. Her current research is looking at the continuous professional development (CPD) experiences and expectations of nurses working in General Practice, using diabetes as lens. This work follows on from her former work with a National Consultation Group as part of Diabetes UK, who were looking at the improvement and maintenance of healthcare professionals’ education and competence around diabetes care and management. She has published two position statements backed by Diabetes UK based on her work with this national group. Other recent project work has included heading up the Higher Education element of a nationally driven project by Health Education England to bring training hubs to General Practice in Lincolnshire. The aim of this project was to ultimately promoting recruitment and retention within General Practice as well as the advancement of quality educational provision for all learners within General Practice. This work has been presented nationally and published. Nicki has been part of National consultations on a range of health related topics for the Queen’s Nursing Institute (QNI). Examples have been around the utility of Specialist Qualifications for Community Nursing Staff, effective discharge and transition services for young people. Since joining BGU Nicki has set up a number of stakeholder networks which focus on Graduate career trajectories for students within H&S, as well as enhancement of student placement experience. Recently Nicki has been given the opportunity to work as International Associate for BGU, which will see her looking to embed internationalisation across BGU curricula and to lead on a project supported by other academic at BGU with Masaryk University looking at internationalisation of the profile of future teachers and teaching practice.
Book Chapter- Chapter One - Introduction– Welsh, M. and Brooks, S., (2021) Contemporary General Practice Nursing, New York. Elsevier
Walsh, N and Mason, R., (2018) “Hitting the Ground Running": An Evaluation of Management Placements for Student Nurses with UK General Practice. Primary Health Care. Vol. 28 No.7 pp34-41 . doi: 10.7748/phc. 2018.e1443
Walsh, N., (2017) Using community education provider networks to develop general practice nursing. Primary Health Care. Vol.27, No.4, pp26-29
Simmons, D, Deakin, T., Walsh, N., Turner, B., Lawrence, S., Priest, L., George, S., Vanterpool, G., McArdle, J., Rylance, A., Terry, G., (2015) Diabetes UK Position Statement Competency frameworks in diabetes, Diabetic Medicine. Vol 32, No.5 pp576-84 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com...
Walsh, N., George, S., Priest, L., Deakin, T., Karet, B., Vanterpool, G. and Simmons, D., (2011) The current status of Diabetes Professional Educational Standards and Competencies in the UK – A Position Statement from the Diabetes UK HCP Education Competency framework Task and Finish Group. Diabetic Medicine. Vol. 28, No.12, pp 1501-1507. DOI: 10.1111/j.1464-5491.2011.0341
Walsh, N.J., Collins, J., Rush, B., and Wharrad, H., (2010) Using Technology to enhance Pre-registration nurse education in diabetes. Journal Diabetes Nursing, Vol. 14, No.1, pp139-142
Walsh, N.J. (2010) Dissemination of Evidence into Practice: Examination of the barriers to its use in practice settings. Journal of Primary HealthCare. Vol.20, No.3, pp 26-30
Walsh, N., (April 2009) We need minimum standards in diabetes education - Independent Nurse, pp 17
Walsh, N.J., Rush, B. & Collins, J. (2009) Diabetes in undergraduate nurse education: a novel approach. Diabetic Medicine. Vol. 26. Supp. 1, pp182-183.
Walsh, N., (2009 Feb) Train Nurses to Make QOF a Success – Independent Nurse, pp 18
Walsh, N., (2008) Community Nursing: An “Essential” Pre-Registration Nursing Experience – Primary Health Care. Vol 18. No 6, pp18-19