Biography
Dr Catherine Mahoney is an Associate Professor in Nursing and Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA) at Edinburgh Napier University, she registered with the Nursing Midwifery Council (NMC) as an Adult Health Nurse in 1998 and Nurse Teacher in 2009. Catherine worked in a number of clinical specialties including cardio-thoracic surgery, high dependency, infectious diseases and drug and alcohol services. Catherine has also worked as Clinical Nutrition Nurse Specialist and senior educationalist within Professional and Practice Development. These roles entailed leading complex and strategic health service projects which afforded her recognition as an inspirational leader of organisational and cultural change.
Having completed her PhD exploring nutritional interventions for Stroke patients, Catherine began her Lecturing position in the School of Health and Social Care in 2009 and is a member of the Population and Public Health Theme within the School. As a valued leader, she completed the Aurora Leadership Foundation training for women in Higher Education in 2016 and training with Twenty One Leadership in 2019.
Catherine has held a number if leadership roles in the School of Health and Social Care including; Senior Academic Lead for Curriculum Enhancement, Lead for Staff Development, Athena Swan Champion, Lead for Educational Research, Programme Lead for the Bachelor of Nursing and Curriculum Lead for the Masters in Nursing. Catherine also serves on the University Academic Board.
Catherine was awarded SEDA accreditation for postgraduate research degree supervision; to date she has supervised to completion 40 Masters Dissertation students (2009-present) (a significant number achieving distinction, presenting at conference and progressing onto PhD), plus 1 PhD completion. She has examined 1 MRES student and is currently supervising 6 PhD students. Catherine also has significant expertise in curriculum development, she led and supported the Bachelor and Masters in Nursing Programme teams through successful validation with the NMC and University in 2016, 2020 and 2021 (accelerated MSc in Nursing with registration in adult or mental health nursing). Catherine was also a member of the Steering Group for the development of the Allied Health Professional Programmes in 2018.
Catherine is a keen proponent of authentic and real world learning and assessment supported with emancipatory pedagogical innovation in order to advance approaches to blended and online learning, and is currently collaborating with academics from Tasmania, Australia and Oregon, USA .
Catherine is a skilled project manager and post-doctoral researcher; research interests include; supporting and enhancing the health and wellbeing of the nursing workforce with the Nurses Lives Research Programme which has gained recognition both nationally and internationally. Catherine leads the Health and Wellbeing strand of the Nurses Lives Research Programme and has successfully secured funding and led investigations into the application of tracking devices as an indicator for determining nurses health, and the impact of health status on the effective performance of CPR on which she is collaborating with Stirling University.
Catherine successfully secured funding from the Economic and Social Research Council, Edinburgh Napier Research Innovation and Public Engagement and Teaching Fellows funds. With a little over £10,000 she led and facilitated public engagement events to broaden students experience of partnership working and understanding of health and social care integration beyond the classroom. In partnership with other academics, health and social care professionals, service users, members of the general public, nursing students and film students from the School of Arts and Creative Industries, this work has resulted in two enduring educational media resources which feature in the Bachelor and Masters in Nursing Programmes and are available publicly. This innovation has led to a significant increase in student satisfaction and understanding of complex concepts in service provision. Furthermore it has been nominated for teaching innovation of the year by the Student Nursing Times Awards 2020 and is gaining recognition in both UK and European HE institutions as a valuable and impactful pedagogical approach.
Following significant positive evaluation and impact, Catherine has shared her approaches to teaching research to health and social care students and staff nationally, presenting as a keynote speaker at national conference and research forums. Her approach has sought to demystify and enable understanding and application of research to real world practice. Catherine's research with the Nurses Lives Team, innovative public engagement activity and research on real world and authentic learning, has earned her both national and international recognition and collaboration in both Belgium and Finland.
Other current research includes collaboration with Edinburgh University Usher Institute and NHS Scotland on the Care Home Innovations Project in realising the vision of Care Homes as centres of excellence for research and education; Catherine is currently leading two research studies as part of this project. To date this work has led to further liaison with nursing academics in Waikato, New Zealand and with the CMO in Scotland over the evaluation and implementation of the 1000 days approach to palliative and end of life care.
Research interests - Population and Public Health; Health Behaviours; Health and Wellbeing of the Health and Social Care Workforce; Clinical Nutrition
Learning and Teaching expertise - Pedagogical Innovations in Population and Public Health; Achieving Authenticity in Health and Social Care Education; Making Research Accessible to Health and Social Care Practitioners; Curriculum Design and Theory in Health and Social Care Curricula