My professional background is in Adult Nursing and my practice experiences has ranged from working as a staff nurse within a hospital and community, a district nursing sister, joint appointment role responsible for the quality of practice learning environments and teaching Pre-registration nursing students (across two large NHS hospital and community Trust/University of Central Lancashire (UCLan), to a Practice Learning Lead at UCLan and Faculty Practice Learning Lead and Programme Leader at Edge Hill University.
My academic background is in Community Nursing and Education. With a BSc Specialist Practitioner (Community Nursing) at Bolton Institute (now Bolton University). Master in Education (Research) and Post Graduate Certificate in Higher Education at UCLan. I have work at two HEIs including University of Central Lancashire, and Edge Hill University. Within both of these Universities I have played a lead role in managing practice learning across health and social work programmes before working at Staffordshire. Working at the different HEIs has given me a wealth of teaching experience , practice learning and leadership experience; everything from creating and running new degrees programmes, reviewing existing programmes, establishing a dedicated Faculty practice learning support unit, implementing Trust and Faculty wide practice learning developments to strengthen collaborative working across the Faculty and Partner Organisations.
Working across the different HEI, I have been involved in a number of enterprise and consultancy work. Some of this has been funded research activity in an attempt to understand integrated learning to support new curriculum developments and practice learning to inform new ways of working.
Professional memberships and activities
Academic qualifications
Research interests
My research interests fall into to three broad areas:
Inter-professional education, Integrated Learning, and professional identity. I am currently engaged in the final phase of a longitudinal qualitative research study which engaged with the experiences of Nursing and Social Work students to explore discourse surrounding inter- and multi-agency education, professional integration and professional identify. Additionally, in the writing stages of a further research project which explored Nursing and Social Work students’ experience of team teach as a teaching and learning methodology.
Strengthening Practice Learning, and practice learning, teaching and assessment. My work on strengthening practice learning, developing an online Practice Learning Support Tool and introducing Learning Environment Manager. Have enabled me to present at various local, national and international conferences.
• Mindfulness and the influence on organisational culture.
Publications
Allen, D; Baker, T and Rootes, D. (2014) Becoming a Nursing and Social Work Student: An Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis of Interprofessional Education. Journal of Research in Interprofessional Practice & Education. Vol 4.1
Congdon, G; Baker, T and Cheesman, A. (2013) enhancing the strategic management of practice learning through the introduction of the role of learning environment manager. Nurse Education in Practice Journal. 137-141
Congdon, G., Baker, T and Cheesman, A. (2012) Making Practice Learning work. Nursing Standard Vol. 27, No 7, October 17 – 23, 2012, 64