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Dr Gareth Parsons

PhD, PGCE, SFHEA, RN

Senior Lecturer: Adult Nursing

School of Healthcare Sciences

Email
ParsonsG4@cardiff.ac.uk
Telephone
+44 29225 14565
Campuses
Ty Dewi Sant, Room 2.16, University Hospital of Wales, Heath Park, Cardiff, CF14 4XN
Users
Available for postgraduate supervision

Overview

I am a Senior Lecturer (Adult Nursing) at the School of Healthcare Sciences, Cardiff University (and before this I worked as a Senior Lecturer at University of South Wales).

I am a Registered Nurse (Adult Nursing) and have an interest in pain management. In my clinical work I established two acute pain services in South Wales, mainly post surgical and developed nurse-led chronic pain clinics. The nurse-led clinics delivered interventions such as TENS and acupuncture and also working with other health professionals on medicines management, relaxation therapy and in sensory training in a snoezelen environment.

Since moving into education I have been interested in promoting effective pain management and collaborating on building learning communities to build resilience. Lately I have collaborated with a charity The Pain Toolkit on promoting persistent pain education among health professionals.

I have co-authored a book on managing pain Principles and Practice of Managing Pain: A guide for nurses and Allied Health Professionals

I am also interested in storytelling, compassionate care and empathy and attitudes towards others with health problems. This includes the use of storytelling in the nursing curriculum and simulation.

I am a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a member of the Welsh and British Pain Societies and the European Academy of Nursing Science.

Publication

2024

2023

2021

2019

2011

2009

2008

2007

2006

2000

Articles

Book sections

  • Broom, M. and Parsons, G. 2009. Patient-controlled analgesia. In: Glasper, A., McEwing, G. and Richardson, J. eds. Foundation Skills for Caring. Macmillan Education {UK}, pp. 310-317.

Conferences

Research

My research interests are pain management, in particular persistent pain. I am very interested in how nurses can support those with persistent pain. My PhD was on the use of learning communities to support people with chronic (persistent) pain.

Current Projects

  • Currently I am working on a research project on persistent pain management in the community. This involves developing services for social prescribing for persistent pain.
  • Review of the literature on social prescribing for persistent pain
  • Story telling and empathy

Recent Research Projects

  • Doctoral Studies

My PhD was completed in 2014 Using a Learning Community to Manage Pain: A participatory action research study at University of South Wales. Supervised by Drs Allyson Lipp, Gina Dolan and Stuart Todd. The idea from this arose from the informal and supportive learning communities I saw arise amongst people with chronic (now termed persistent) pain I had encountered in my clinical practice. I used participatory action research methods to work with people in persistent pain to build learning communities to explore the problems they faced as a result of their pain. We adopted Paolo Friere's approaches to building communities and used this to build an account of how they are treated by society, linking this to Jean Harvey's ideas around Civilised Oppression.

This research was supported by the University of South Wales and the European Academy of Nursing Science (EANS). I was a doctoral nursing scholar of EANS.

Subsequently I have successfully supervised two PhD on the topic of chronic pain management.

  • Story telling and empathy

Related to the idea of how people encounter healthcare I am also interested in story telling in health care and how this can inform empathy and compassion among nurses and health professionals and have been involved in the development and testing of a story telling intervention"Waling in their Shoes" for simulation aimed at promoting empathy

I am currently co-supervising a KESS funded PhD student who is developing an empathy intervention in colaboration with Aneurin Bevan Health Board.

I have a pragmatic approach to research methods and have experience in participatory action research methods, group methods and focus groups. I have received training in action research from the Bath University School of Management.

I have also taught research methods and am a member of  the School of Health Sciences research ethics panel.

Teaching

I am an experienced educator and Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

My teaching discipline is adult nursing, particularly pain management and in particular research and evidence based nursing at both an undergraduate and postgraduate level. I have also taught across different health disciplines.

I have also taught on pain management as an external lecturer in Austria, for The University for Health Sciences, Medical Informatics and Technology in Vienna and Hall-in-Tirol.

I am current responsible for teaching on:

The dissertation module for undergraduate nursing and the Empirical Dissertation on the School of Health Care Sciences Master's Programmes.

Biography

I am a Senior Lecturer in Adult Nursing with over twenty-years’ experience of nurse education practice. Prior to this I was a clinical nurse specialist in pain management. Setting up two acute pain services in South Wales and developing nurse led chronic pain services. I also have a background in trauma and orthopaedic nursing. My initial nurse education was undertaken at West Glamorgan School of Nursing.

I am a Senior Lecturer (Adult Nursing) at the School of Healthcare Sciences, Cardiff University. I am a Registered Nurse (Adult Nursing) and have a clinical background in pain management. I established two acute pain services in South Wales and developed nurse-led chronic pain clinics.

I registered as a nurse in 1987 and subsequently obtained my BN in 1993. I completed an MSc in Pain Management at University of Wales College of Medicine in 1999.

My PhD was completed in 2014 Using a Learning Community to Manage Pain: A participatory action research study at University of South Wales.

Previously I worked as a Senior Lecturer at University of South Wales.

I am a member of:

  • the Welsh Pain Society
  • the British Pain Society
  • The European Academy of Nursing Science

I am a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Honours and awards

European Academy of Nursing Science Doctoral Scholarship (2007-2010)

Professional memberships

  • European Academy of Nursing Science
  • British Pain Society
  • Welsh Pain Society

Academic positions

  • 2000 - 2022: Senior Lecturer, University of South Wales
  • 2015 - 2019: Visiting Lecturer, Institute of Nursing Science UMIT, Hall in Tirol, Austria

Supervisions

I am interested in supervising students in the areas of:

  • Chronic or persistent pain
  • Compassionate care and empathy
  • Storytelling and simulation

I particularly welcome applications from students sharing my interests in understanding how pain affects people and in understanding and improving services for people in pain or on using storytelling to develop compassionate care and empathy.

I am currently co-supervising the following PhD student

Mrs Sarah Gill "'Walking in their Shoes’ – A randomised controlled trial of an education intervention on empathy among health professionals" - (Due August 2023 University of South Wales)