How to be a pioneer in your chosen field

She is a committee member of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, is an editor for the Journal of Clinical Nursing, was on the RCN Research Society’s committee for eight years, and maintains strong links with the wider clinical disciplines working on improvements in patient engagement and experience using social media.

When and why did you develop an interest in research?

It started when I was teaching manual handling. I was forthright about the importance of getting as close to patients as possible, which meant putting my feet on the bed at times.

One of the students, an infection control nurse, nearly had some kind of cardiac event. ‘You can’t put your feet on a patient’s bed!’ she said.

‘Who knows what’s been on the bottom of a nurse’s shoes?’

That question stayed with me, so I did a literature review – in the pre-Google Scholar days when