History
of Health and Social Care Research Group
School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work
Strategic Plan
Aims
The aims of the group are:
- to provide a supportive network of colleagues at the University of Manchester working in the fields of Health and Social Care History;
- to provide academic support and career mentorship to individuals working in these fields;
- to offer a confidential forum in which colleagues may present ‘work in progress’ to their peers, and receive support and advice.
Statement of Purpose
- To provide peer support and peer mentorship to people whose research is primarily in history, contemporary history or sociology of health and social care or related areas of scholarship;
- To facilitate the development of research projects in the history of health and social care by individual researchers and teams of researchers;
- To promote wider understanding of the importance and the relevance of the historical background to all health and social care research, teaching and practice;
- To act as a resource which can provide advice, support and expertise in relation to historical matters and historical methodologies to the other research groups and to educational programmes within the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work;
- To work in conjunction with the UK Centre for the History of Nursing and Midwifery to develop networks of historians in health and social care.
Membership
Christine Hallett Professor
(Teaching and Research)
Michele Abendstern University
Member, Community Based Medicine, Psychiatry
Janette Allotey Lecturer
(Teaching)
Isabel Anton-Solanas Associate Member, University
of Southampton
Helen Barnes University
Member, School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work, Lecturer (Teaching and
Research)
Colleen Bowers PhD
Student
Jane Brooks Lecturer
(Teaching and Research)
Hannah Cooke Senior
Lecturer (Teaching)
Charlotte Dale PhD Student
Tommy Dickinson PhD Student
Lorraine Green Lecturer
(Teaching and Research)
Valerie Harrington University Member,
CHSTM
Aya Homei University
Member, Wellcome Trust Fellow, School of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures
John Hopton Senior
Lecturer (Teaching)
David Justham PhD
Student
Jacinta Kelly PhD
Student
Margaret Lynch Lecturer
(Teaching)
Geraldine Lyte Lecturer
(Teaching and Research)
Catherine Morrison PhD Student
Alice Nicholls University Member,
CHSTM
Julie Owen PhD
Student
Sheri Tesseyman PhD
Student
Lesley Wade Lecturer (Teaching)
Research Interests
History of Nursing and
Midwifery Practice
The team has particular strength in the field of the history of
nursing and midwifery practice, which is considered to be one of the most
important newly-emerging fields in the wider discipline of the History of
Nursing.
History of Nursing Work
Christine Hallett’s most recent research has explored the meanings attributed to
their work by those who nursed the wounded of the First World War. This work
offers a new interpretation of the significance of nursing work and has been
published by Manchester University Press as Containing
Trauma: Nursing Work in the First World War (2009). Jane
Brooks has done considerable empirical research exploring the
work of nurses who specialised in elderly care during the twentieth century.
The team is also offering PhD supervision in this field. David
Justham’s work focuses on the care of patients with
life-threatening infectious diseases in the pre-antibiotic era. Catherine Morrison’s work focuses, in part, on the
extended practice of remote area nurses in the Outer Hebrides. Sheri Tesseyman is exploring the boundaries between
the work of nurses and physicians in the period 1880 to 1914.
History of Mental Health
Care
John Hopton’s
main research interests are the history of mental health nursing and mental
health institutions; critical psychiatry including continuing relevance of the
anti-psychiatry of the 1960s and the 1970s; oral history methodology; politics
of mental health and mental health care; and the relationship between mental
health and exercise and the use of 'green space'. Michele
Abendstern’s research enhances our understanding of the
mental health of older people, and explores the health and social care
interface. Val Harrington’s work on the provision of community mental health
services makes an important contribution to this element of the team’s work.
Helen Barnes’s work includes the use of research into the legacy of
socio-historical discourses regarding mental health problems and their
treatment for today’s policy and practice responses.
History of Occupational
Health
A recent strand of funded work within the team has explored the
health of cotton mill workers in the North West of England during the mid
twentieth century. External funding was obtained by Christine
Hallett and Michele Abendstern
for two studies in this field, and papers have been published in Oral History, Nursing History Review, Labour
History and Journal of Advanced
Nursing.
History of Nursing in
Wartime
This is an increasingly important area of work for the team. Christine Hallett is developing her work on the history
of nursing during the First World War; funding has been obtained to support
research towards two new books in this field. Jane
Brooks is undertaking research into the work of nurses during
the Second World War. The team is also offering PhD supervision in this field.
We have one successful recent completion in the area of Spanish Civil War
Nursing, and one current student who is studying the history of nursing during
the Second Boer War.
History of Midwifery
There is a strong strand of work within the team which focuses on
the history of midwifery and obstetrics. work in this area has been published
in journals such as Medical History,
Midwifery, MIDIRS Midwifery Digest, Social History of Medicine and the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine.
Janette Allotey’s work considers
medical and midwifery perceptions on the function of the female pelvis in
childbirth, the importance of midwifery history to the profession and on
encouraging midwives to actively contribute to their professional legacy. In
addition to her work on the history of modern medicine, Aya
Homei has explored the history of midwifery, birth culture and
family planning in Japan. Christine Hallett’s
work looked at medical perceptions of puerperal fever and the ways in which
these influenced practice. The team is beginning to expand its provision of PhD
supervision in this field.
Gender, Identity and the
Life Course
Lorraine Green’s work focuses on children, childhood, child health, child abuse,
gender, sexuality and sexual exploitation, institutionalisation, resilience,
the life course and various combinations of these. Michele
Abendstern has worked on a number of projects in the past
which have had a life course focus - in particular her work with P. Thompson
and C. Itzin in the late 1980s - and has specialised in life story
interviewing. Helen Barnes’s work includes a focus on the health, social and
identity issues facing older adults and their impact, drawing implications for
policy and practice responses.
Contemporary History of
Policy and Professional Discourses in Health and Social Care
Michele Abendstern has worked for the Personal Social Service Research Unit for the
past eight years, specialising in health and social care policy research
relating to older people and adult mental health issues. Hannah
Cooke has specialised in researching policy issues relating
to professional discipline, standards of care and patient safety. Helen Barnes’s
research interests include theoretical and research-based critiques of policy
and professional discourses in relation to the health and social issues faced
by people with mental health concerns, and with long-term health conditions and
complex needs. These include consideration of discourses concerned with
vulnerability.
History of Professional
Regulation
A newly-emerging area of focus for the team is the history of
professional self-regulation in nursing and midwifery. The Nursing and
Midwifery Council of the United Kingdom recently commissioned work in this
field, which will result in the publication of a book to be authored by Hannah Cooke, Christine
Hallett and Ann Thomson.
Alongside an examination of nurses’ working conditions and working lives, Hannah Cooke’s work explores workplace discipline,
professional regulation, audit culture, performance management, patient safety,
whistle blowing and conscientious objection at work.
Current projects
Full Team Members
Full members of the History of Health and Social Care Team are staff
members of the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work.
Janette Allotey
Projects in the history of midwifery.
Jane Brooks
‘Nursing older
people in Britain during World War II’
Unfunded study; commenced 2010.
‘Nursing in World
War II’
Unfunded study; commenced 2010.
‘Nursing older
people in Britain between 1955 and 1980’
Pump priming funded; commenced 2007.
‘A history of the
early undergraduates at the University of Edinburgh’
Monica Baly Award; commenced 2006.
Hannah Cooke
‘A History of
Professional Self-Regulation in Nursing and Midwifery’
Funded by the Nursing and Midwifery Council.
One-year study to be conducted jointly with Christine Hallett and Ann
Thomson, to result in a joint-authored book.
‘Analysis of NMC
fitness for practice decisions’
Unfunded study carried out in 2009. Initial findings
presented at the British Sociological association Medical Sociology Conference,
Manchester, September 2009. Paper currently in preparation for
publication-target journal Journal of
Health Service Research and Policy. In early stages of collaboration with
Michael Traynor at Middlesex University
on joint paper combining datasets from my study with his work on a similar
dataset.
Commissioned to write a chapter on Blame in
Organisations for an edited book entitled (Re)Thinking
Violence in Health Care Settings: A Critical Approach to be published by
Ashgate in 2011.
Lorraine
Green
‘Mixed heritage
children and fostering and adoption’
‘A critique of
the concept of resilience’
Christine
Hallett
‘Healers,
heroines and harpies: literary nurses of the First World War’
Book project funded by a research support grant from the
Wellcome Trust.
Commenced April 2009.
‘Angels and
Adventuresses: The Image and Experience of the First World War Nurse’
Workshop and edited book, funded by the Wellcome Trust;
collaborative project with Alison Fell.
‘It’s a Long Way
to Home: A Study of Nurses’ Letters to Professional Journals, 1914-18’
Research study funded by the Victoria University of
Wellington, NZ; collaborative study with Pamela Wood.
‘A History of
Professional Self-Regulation in Nursing and Midwifery’
Study funded by the Nursing and Midwifery Council.
One-year study to be conducted jointly with Hannah Cooke and Ann
Thomson.
John Hopton
‘A qualitative
research study exploring the relationship between the use of urban parks and
the promotion of good mental health’
Internally-funded study.
University members
The team has several ‘University members’. These individuals are not
part of the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work, but are based in
other parts of the University of Manchester. They are involved in some
collaborations with School staff. They also attend team meetings and form an
important part of the mutual support network that exists within the team. There
are also associates who are members of the School of Nursing, Midwifery and
Social Work, but whose main area of research activity falls within the remit of
another research team.
Michele Abendstern
(Michele Abendstern is based within the Personal Social Services
Research Unit)
‘Community mental
health teams for older people: Outcomes of different ways of working’
This is part of a larger study entitled “National Trends
and Local Delivery in Old Age Mental Health Services: Towards an evidence-base”
funded by the National Institute of Health Research for three years with a grant
of £1,300,000.
Helen Barnes
(Helen Barnes is based
within the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work, and is a member of the
Mental Health Research Group.)
Val Harrington
(Val Harrington is based within the Centre for the History of
Science, Technology and Medicine.)
‘The History of
Irritable Bowel Syndrome’
Funded by a Wellcome Post-Doc Fellowship.
Commenced October 2009.
Using a mixture of oral history and archival evidence,
the project will trace the complex and contested history of IBS since the
emergence of the term in the late 1950s/early 1960s to the publication of the
NICE guidelines in 2008, focusing on:
·
the interactions within and
between 3 key groups of actors: gastroenterology specialists, primary care
practitioners, and patients and patient support groups;
·
the role of advertising, and
the ways in which drug companies and the health food industry helped shape the
conceptions and negotiations of the main protagonists.
The project aims to link history and policy, having been
developed in close collaboration with Prof. David Thompson, consultant
gastroenterologist at Hope Hospital, who has a particular interest in the
management of IBS in primary care.
Aya Homei
(Aya Homei is based
within the Department of East Asian Studies.)
'Family Planning,
Health Promotion and Global Medicine, 1945-1995. The activities of Japanese
health campaigners around the world'
Five year project Funded by Wellcome Trust.
Commenced September 2009.
Details of research grants
currently held
Year
|
Funding Body
|
Grant Awarded
|
Grantholder
|
Amount
|
2010
|
The Wellcome
Trust
|
Research
Expenses Grant:
‘The Historical Intersection of Psychiatry and ‘Sexual Deviation’
between 1949 – 1992: exploring the role of nurses and the experience of
former patients’
|
Tommy Dickinson
|
£3,000
|
2010
|
The Royal
Historical Society
|
Research
Expenses Grant:
‘The Historical Intersection of Psychiatry and ‘Sexual Deviation’
between 1949 – 1992: exploring the role of nurses and the experience of
former patients’
|
Tommy Dickinson
|
£200
|
2010
|
The Wellcome Trust
|
Medical History
and Humanities Fellowship: ‘Irritable Bowel Syndrome: The History of a Modern
Epidemic’
|
Val Harrington
|
£144,501
|
2010
|
Nursing and
Midwifery Council, UK
|
‘A History of
Professional Self-Regulation’
|
Christine
Hallett and Hannah
Cooke
|
£17,893
|
2009
|
The Victoria
University of Wellington, New Zealand
|
Research Support
Grant: ‘It’s a Long Way to Home: A Study of Nurses’ Letters to Professional
Journals, 1914-18’
|
Christine Hallett with Pamela Wood
|
$ (NZ) 24,000
|
2009
|
The Wellcome
Trust
|
Conference
Grant: ‘Radiation Sickness and the Politics of Nuclear Energy: Cold-War
Science, Technology and Medicine in Japan, USA and Britain’
|
Aya Homei
|
£4,880
|
2009
|
Great Britain
Sasakawa Fondation
|
Grant supporting
the abovementioned workshop
|
Aya Homei
|
£1,500
|
2009
|
Japan Foundation
Endowment Committee
|
Research Grant
Scheme supporting the abovementioned workshop
|
Aya Homei
|
£1,400
|
2009
|
Wellcome Trust,
University Award
|
'Family
Planning, Health Promotion and Global Medicine, 1945-1995 The activities of
Japanese health campaigners around the world'
|
Aya Homei
|
£185,922
|
2009
|
The Wellcome
Trust
|
Research Support
Grant: ‘Healers, Heroines and Harpies: Literary Nurses of the First World
War’
|
Christine
Hallett
|
£4,998
|
2009
|
The Wellcome
Trust
|
Workshop Grant:
‘Angels and Adventuresses: The Image and Experience of the First World War
Nurse’
|
Christine
Hallett
with Alison Fell
|
£4,991
|
2009
|
The University
of Pennsylvania, USA
|
The Lillian
Sholtis Brunner Fellowship
|
Christine
Hallett
|
$ (US) 2,500
|
2009
|
The University
of Virginia, USA
|
The Barbara
Brodie Fellowship
|
Christine
Hallett
|
$ (US) 3,000
|
2009
|
The Royal
College of Nursing, UK
|
Funding for an
International Conference entitled: ‘International Perspectives on the History
of Nursing’
|
Christine
Hallett
with AAHN and ENHG
|
£5,000
|
2009
|
University of
Manchester School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work
|
Pump-priming
grant: The mental health benefits associated with use of public parks in
inner cities
|
John Hopton
|
£5,140
|
Details of previous
research grants held (since 2005)
Year
|
Funding Body
|
Grant Awarded
|
Grantholder
|
Amount
|
2007
|
Martha McMenamin
Scholarship
|
Nursing Research
Priorities in the Care of Older People in Acute Hospital Care: A Delphi Study
|
Jacinta Kelly
|
£3,150
|
2005
|
The Wellcome
Trust
|
Funding for an
International Conference entitled: ‘Nursing History: Profession and Practice’
|
Christine Hallett
|
£2,150
|
