Nicola Guthrie

Deputy Head of School - Skills and Simulation
Faculty:
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Social Care
School:
School of Nursing
Location:
Cambridge
Areas of Expertise:
Nursing and midwifery , Simulation-based education

Nicola is a registered nurse who is passionate about safe effective person-centred care and ensuring students have the best opportunities to develop to their full potential.

[email protected]

Background

Nicola is a registered nurse with a background in emergency care and assessment. Previous to joining ARU, she worked within the emergency department of a local hospital, on medical assessment units and in the stroke ward. She also has a background as a Clinical Educator in the hospital environment.

She has a passion for human factors and effective simulation, and works these elements into her teaching within the skills lab and the classroom. She has been nominated and shortlisted for two “Made a Difference” awards, in 2018 and 2021, and is currently undertaking her PhD.

Research interests

Nicola's proposed PhD is to investigate the qualitative aspects of students' understanding of confidence and how it can be supported and maintained.

Lack of confidence is something we all suffer with from one degree to another. It is important for students that we, as academics and clinical placement staff, identify this and know how to support and maintain the student’s confidence.

Studies show that student confidence is variable over the three-year training course and support is needed to enable the students to optimise their learning and develop into competent, confident graduates. Providing the students with what the support they need will improve engagement, attendance and retention.

Nicola's other areas of interest are simulation, and the different range of equipment that is now available and how this can be integrated into teaching.

Teaching

Nicola is involved across the spectrum of pre-reg courses, from Adult Nursing to nursing apprenticeships, teaching:

  • Recognising and Responding to the Deteriorating Patient
  • Moving and Handling and basic life support (BLS) and immediate life support (ILS) training
  • Simulation
Qualifications
  • MSc Medical and Health Care Education, Anglia Ruskin University
  • PG Cert, Anglia Ruskin University
  • BSc (Hons) Nursing, Anglia Ruskin University
  • Diploma in Nursing, Anglia Ruskin University
  • NNEB (National Nursery Examination Board), Clifton College Bristol
  • Train the Trainer Moving and Handling, Norvic Training
  • Cannulation and Venepuncture Train the Trainer, B Braun
 
Memberships, editorial boards
  • NMC – Nursing and Midwifery Council
  • RCN – Royal College of Nursing
  • Resuscitation Council - member
  • National Back Exchange – member