Staff profile: Sheila Donovan
Position: Research Fellow
School: Nursing
Telephone: +44 (0)20 8725 4760
Email: s.donovan@sgul.kingston.ac.uk
Biography
Sheila’s background is in community nursing. She worked in east London for many years, first as a district nurse and then as an educational facilitator in primary care, which involved the development, dissemination and implementation of clinical guidelines on the management of chronic disease.
After this she moved into research full time, working on collaborative studies on older people’s perception of the risk of falls and user involvement in nursing, midwifery and health visiting research.
She is currently undertaking research (for which she was awarded a research training fellowship by Guy’s & St Thomas’ Charity) exploring patients’ experiences of care in the context of falls prevention services, with the aim of developing a patient-centred tool for professionals to use to assess the quality of the care they offer to older people. Integral to each of these projects has been the active involvement of service users working alongside the research teams as a consumer panel, reference group and a consultative group.
Interests
Older people’s experiences and expectations of care; patients’ information needs; interprofessional working; integrating research findings into practice; the involvement of service users in research, and their role in influencing service development and change.
Publications
Article
Smith, Elizabeth, Donovan, Sheila, Beresford, Peter, Manthorpe, Jill, Brearley, Sally, Sitzia, John and Ross, Fiona (2009) Getting ready for user involvement in a systematic review. Health Expectations, 12(2), pp. 197-208. ISSN (print) 1369-6513
Smith, Elizabeth, Ross, Fiona, Donovan, Sheila, Manthorpe, Jill, Brearley, Sally, Sitzia, John and Beresford, Peter (2008) Service user involvement in nursing, midwifery and health visiting research: a review of evidence and practice. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 45(2), pp. 298-315. ISSN (print) 0020-7489
Richards, Sally, Donovan, Sheila, Victor, Christina and Ross, Fiona (2007) Standing secure amidst a falling world? Practitioner understandings of old age in responses to a case vignette. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 21(3), pp. 335-349. ISSN (print) 1356-1820
Donovan, Sheila, Ross, Fiona and Smith, Elizabeth (2005) Circles of learning: using the World Cafe method to build knowledge on service user involvement. Education for Primary Care, 16(1), pp. 85-86. ISSN (print) 1473-9879
Ross, Fiona, Donovan, Sheila, Brearley, Sally, Victor, Christina, Cottee, Mark, Crowther, Peter and Clark, Eileen (2005) Involving older people in research: methodological issues. Health and Social Care in the Community, 13(3), pp. 268-275. ISSN (print) 0966-0410
Conference or Workshop Item
Smith, Elizabeth, Ross, Fiona, Donovan, Sheila, Manthorpe, Jill, Brearley, Sally, Sitzia, John and Beresford, Peter (2007) Service users in research. In: Unhealthy professional boundaries? Working together in health and social care; 04 - 05 Dec 2007, London, U.K.. (Unpublished)
