About our Nursing and Health Research

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The Institute of Nursing and Health Research (INHR) was created in 2005 to organise, coordinate and support research in the School of Nursing and Paramedic Science and the School of Health Sciences.

Research in the INHR is conducted in three Research Centres:

The overall research objective of the INHR is to conduct high quality, strategic and applied research relevant to the health and social wellbeing of people, through a range of creative and appropriate methodologies.

Our Research Strategy aligns with the University’s Research and Impact Strategy and embraces the interdisciplinary theme of creating healthy communities. Hence our vision is to engage in cutting edge, interdisciplinary research that is internationally excellent in order to provide answers and solutions to some of the key health problems and thereby enhance the health and well-being of people in Northern Ireland and beyond.

The impact of our research is central to what we do. Our work on person-centred care has provided methodologies, models and tools that healthcare practitioners use worldwide.

We continue to work closely with clinicians in the NHS Trusts in Northern Ireland. This includes maintaining and creating joint appointments. We support staff and post-graduate researchers (PGRs) to engage in impact activities from the development of their research proposals to disseminating and implementing the findings.

INHR

Professor Ciara Hughes

Research Director of Health Science Research

School of Health Sciences

Derry~Londonderry

Room: MF136

+44 28 7167 5916

cm.hughes@ulster.ac.uk

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Professor Ben Fitzpatrick

Research Director & Professor of Nursing Research and Development

School of Nursing and Paramedic Science

Derry~Londonderry

Room: MG107

+44 28 7167 5832

bl.fitzpatrick@ulster.ac.uk

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Professor Ben Fitzpatrick

Research Director & Professor of Nursing Research and Development

Ben is a Professor of Nursing Research and Development and holds a joint appointment between UU where he is the Research Director of the Institute of Nursing and Health Research, and in the Western Health and Social Care Trust where he is Assistant Director of Nursing (Research and Development). Ben plays a key leadership role between these two organisations and is focussed on enhancing strategic links and research culture across them both.

Ben graduated from the University of Wales, Bangor in 2000 with a degree in Sport and Exercise Science and then worked for a series of community and sport development programmes in his native Wales. A change of career beckoned shortly after moving to Northern Ireland and Ben graduated from Ulster in 2010 as a registered Nurse and worked in acute and emergency medicine departments in the South West Acute Hospital, Enniskillen.

Wanting to combine his sport and healthcare background, Ben completed his PhD in Physical Activity and Health in 2016 and became a permanent lecturer within the School of Sport in September 2016 as the Course Director for the BSc Sport, Physical Activity and Health programme on the Magee campus. Through the efforts of the course team this programme achieved 100% satisfaction in the National Student Survey in 2018 and, in the same year Ben was presented with the UUSU Excellence in Teaching Award for the Faculty of Life and Health Sciences. Ben became Head of School of Sport in February 2019 and led the School through the COVID pandemic before returning to the School of Nursing and Paramedic Sciences in 2022.

Ben’s research interests predominantly lie in physical activity and health, specifically in the fields high intensity interval training (HIIT) in clinical and vulnerable groups and in the area of social prescribing. Ben has disseminated this collaborative work at national and international conferences and as a guest speaker at national conventions