Research & Reflections
Working at the Interface
My doctoral research examined the lived experiences of nurses working between healthcare and the criminal justice system. It is a study in professional identity, institutional complexity and the enduring importance of human experience.
Doctoral Research
Working at the Interface of Health and the Criminal Justice System
The Lived Experiences of Liaison and Diversion Nurses — An Interpretative Phenomenological Study
Northumbria University, 2025
"Liaison and Diversion (L&D) services sit at one of the most complex intersections in public life — where healthcare meets the criminal justice system. The nurses who work within these services occupy a distinctive professional space: they hold clinical responsibility while navigating institutional cultures, competing demands and the deeply human circumstances of the people they encounter."
My research used Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to explore the lived experiences of L&D nurses — to understand not just what they do, but how they make sense of their work, their professional identity and the tensions inherent in their role.
The study revealed the profound complexity of working at this interface. Participants described navigating institutional boundaries, holding professional values under pressure and finding meaning in work that is rarely straightforward. Their experiences illuminate something important about what it means to be a healthcare professional in a system not always designed with care at its centre.
The research contributes to a growing body of knowledge about professional identity in complex organisational settings, and raises important questions about how we support the people who work at the edges of our systems — and the people they serve.
Continuing Interests
Areas of Professional Interest
01
Human Experience Within Complex Organisations
Systems are built by people and for people — but they do not always feel that way from the inside. My research explores how individuals navigate institutions that were not always designed with their experience in mind, and what that navigation costs them.
02
Professional Identity and Responsibility
What does it mean to hold professional values across institutional and cultural boundaries? How do nurses and other healthcare professionals maintain a sense of who they are — and what they stand for — when the systems around them pull in different directions?
03
Healthcare, Justice and Vulnerability
The intersection of healthcare and the criminal justice system is a place where vulnerability is concentrated and complexity is the norm. Understanding this intersection — and the people within it — is essential to building more humane and effective systems.
04
The Importance of Listening to Lived Experience
Qualitative research is, at its heart, an act of listening. The stories people carry — about their work, their circumstances, their sense of self — matter as much as the data we collect about them. Lived experience is not anecdote; it is evidence.
05
Culture, Context and Professional Practice
Having worked across Zimbabwe, the United Kingdom, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates, I am deeply interested in how culture and context shape professional practice — and what we can learn from working across different systems and settings.
06
Quality, Governance and Healthcare Leadership
My current work in healthcare quality and accreditation raises questions about how organisations learn, improve and sustain the conditions for good care. These are not purely technical questions — they are deeply human ones.
Reflections
A Space for Thinking Out Loud
Alongside formal research, I believe in the value of reflection — of taking time to think carefully about experience, to notice what it teaches and to share those observations with others who might find them useful.
This section will grow over time. I plan to share reflections on healthcare, education, leadership, professional identity and the experiences that have shaped my thinking. Some will be personal. Some will be professional. All will be honest.
On being a nurse in a justice setting
Coming soonWhat it means to hold clinical values in an institution built around something else entirely.
What Zimbabwe taught me about community
Coming soonThe lessons from a smallholding that no university course has ever replicated.
Teaching across cultures
Coming soonFrom Northumbria to Singapore — what changes, what stays the same, and what surprises you.
On finishing a PhD
Coming soonThe strange feeling of completing something you have carried for years — and what comes next.
Collaborate
Interested in Collaborating?
I welcome conversations with researchers, practitioners and educators working in related areas. Whether you are exploring similar questions, looking for a collaborator or simply want to discuss ideas, I would be glad to hear from you.