Skip to content
Skip to navigation menu

 

Dr Erica Alabaster  -  PhD, RN, MSc, RNT, DANS, RCNT, DipN (Lond.), WNB Cert (Care of Older People), FHEA, MIFA, ITEC (Holistic Massage)


Position:Senior Lecturer: Adult Nursing

Telephone:+44 (0) 029 2068 7749
Extension:87749
Location:Room 1.3, 1st Floor, Ty Dewi Sant, Heath Park, Cardiff, CF14 4XN

Research Interests

Broad areas of interest:

  • Nursing older people, ageing and health, roles and division of labour, the structural context of care.
  • Long-term illness and disability, living with chronicity.
  • Occupational socialisation in nursing, the student experience.
  • Interpretive research methodology/method, researching within one’s own context.

 Interests emerging from my PhD include:

  • The impact of changing patterns of health and social care work on older people (e.g. role and approach of support workers, support workers’ experiences) and people with long-term illness (e.g. the position of the expert patient).
  • Issues in occupational socialisation (e.g. recruit: employee dynamics, learning to deal with emotional labour in highly human-oriented services, the impact of workplace ecology on work-based learning, tracking students' experiences of nurse education).

 As a qualified aromatherapist and masseuse I have additional interests in exploring complementary health care from all stakeholder perspectives.

Career Overview

Qualifying as an RN in 1981, I developed a passion for nursing older people while working as a staff nurse in trauma-orthopaedics. Subsequent experience as a ward manager in age-specific acute, rehabilitation and high dependency settings led to my studying for an MSc and teaching qualifications at Manchester University. I have worked in nurse education since 1987 and at Cardiff University since 1995, enjoying a valued clinical liaison role in NHS andindependent sectors. I was awarded a PhD in 2004 for workplace-inspired research exploring students’ experiences of working with older people and contribute to the School Research Centre’s theme: Work and Organisation - Managing Interfaces. My other activities include co-convening the Ty Dewi Sant Research Interest Group and serving as an invited member of the University’s Disability Equality Working Group and as an active member of its Disabled Staff Network.

Teaching Profile

  • Contributes to learning and teaching activities in nursing older people, long-term illness and complementary health across the School's curricula.
  • Undergraduate module leader: Care management of people with long-term conditions.