Meet the Research and Innovation team

Dr Louise Bramley - Head of Nursing and Midwifery Research

Dr Louise Bramley is a senior nurse with a wealth of clinical, research and leadership experience in acute care and healthcare of older people and currently combines research and practice at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH). Louise received her PhD from the University of Nottingham in 2016 and was recently recognised by the NIHR as one of their 70@70 Nursing Research Leaders and works closely in this role alongside the Research and Innovation Department at NUH. As Head of Nursing and Midwifery Research, Louise is responsible and is passionate about capacity and capability for front-line nurses and midwives to undertake primary research that improves patient outcomes. She is and sits on a number of national and regional steering groups in relation to developing clinical academic roles for nurses, midwives and AHPs. She is also a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Research in Nursing and a member of the centre for evidence based healthcare at the University of Nottingham: Members of the Centre - The University of Nottingham

Louise’s research interest and passion focuses on older people and those living with frailty, end of life, palliative care, decision making, and the policy and practice of advance care planning. She particularly interested in understanding the perspectives of older people and their careers, which is fundamental to enhancing the design and delivery of future care services. Louise also has an interest in healthcare research, policy and practice that is required to enhance patient outcomes and staff satisfaction. Methodologically she has experience in qualitative and quantitative research methods and sees patient and public involvement as key to ensuring that research is meaningful to patient care and assessable to all.

Laura Bathe - Institute Lead Nurse for Research and Innovation

Hi my name is Laura and I qualified as a RN in 1999 where I commenced my career in Acute medicine and moved to the ‘new’ HDU at city campus in 2000. I continued my career in Critical Care over the next 20 years, working across both critical care sites and in different roles. I left Critical care at the end of 2021 as Education Lead to start my role as Institute Senior Nurse, Clinical leadership & Innovation. I am also a Practice Teacher (NMC) and lead on the BSC Innovation & Leadership Modules with NTU.

Dr Ellie Dring - Practice Development Lead for Clinical Research and Innovation

Ellie is a Registered Adult Nurse with a clinical background in Dermatology. She works within the Research and Innovation stream of the Institute of Excellence at Nottingham University Hospitals Trust (NUH). Ellie has recently completed her PhD in Business and Management (Health) Within CHILL, at the University of Nottingham Business School, exploring the coproduction of care for service-users living with chronic oedema, within a context of socioeconomic deprivation

Ellie’s clinical role focusses on evidence-based practice and skin integrity. She is the vice-chair of the NUH Evidence-based Practice council and leads the annual NUH Evidence in Nursing, Midwifery and ODP course.

Dr Alison Cowley - Practice Development Lead for Clinical Research and Innovation

Dr Alison Cowley is AHP Clinical Academic Co-Lead and Practice Development Lead in the Institute of Care Excellence. She sits on the British Geriatrics Society England Council and the Nurse and AHP Council. In 2017, she was awarded an HEE/NIHR Clinical Doctoral Research Fellowship (Integrated Clinical Academic Pathway) in which she explored the assessment of rehabilitation potential in frail older people in the acute healthcare setting. Alison developed an interest in working with older people living with frailty and models of rehabilitation both within the acute, elective surgical and community stetting. She has worked in a number of clinical, operational, transformational and research roles within the NHS and Academic Health Sciences Network. She qualified from Coventry University in 1997 and completed an NIHR funded Masters in Research Methods at the University of Nottingham in 2014. She completed her PhD in 2020 and currently holds an HEE/NIHR Post-Doctoral Bridging Award (2021-22).

Catherine Telford - Practice Development Lead for Quality and Innovation

Catherine started her career at NUH in Acute Medicine in 2013, where she worked for eight years in various roles from newly qualified nurse to clinical educator. Through ward council involvement, Catherine was privileged to be seconded to another Trust to help them set up Shared Governance within their hospital. Recently, Catherine has completed a year fellowship to implement a training programme focusing on fundamentals of care. The Nutrition & Hydration training modules are now available on ESR for all staff. Currently, Catherine is the Practice Development Lead for Quality & Innovation within ICE. This role covers many areas including professional regulation, evidence-based practice, and exploring innovation in practice. 

Professor Christine Moffatt

Christine has been involved in wound healing research and practice for 35 years and Lymphoedema for 25 years. She has undertaken extensive research in this field using mixed research methods including running national and international clinical trials. She currently heads the International Lymphoedema Framework (ILF), an international charity, whose mission is to develop effective Lymphoedema care throughout the world. Her areas of research include compression therapy; service development and evaluation; psychosocial impact of disease; chronic wounds and Lymphoedema. She has presented and published internationally. She was awarded a CBE in the 2006 New Year’s Honours List and made a life fellow of the Royal College of Nursing that same year.

Dr Kathryn Jack 

Kate has worked as a specialist nurse in the field of viral hepatitis and liver disease since 1999, in both hospital and community locations in the East Midlands. In 2019 she was awarded a PhD following a mixed-methods research study into the impact of opt-out hepatitis C testing in prisons. She has an interest in Realist Evaluation methodologies and qualitative research that enables disadvantaged populations to be heard. Kate is an editorial board member of the Gastrointestinal Nursing journal’s liver supplement, a steering committee member of HCV Action, and a member of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) nurse and allied health professional’s taskforce. Kate is currently leading an HEE funded longitudinal study exploring the experiences of a national cohort of nurses who have returned to clinical practice, and is due to start as a principal investigator on a further prison-based hepatitis C testing study.