Dr Helen Holder

Helen Holder

Head of Department Apprenticeships and CPD

Senior Management Team

Department of Apprenticeships & CPD

Contact Details

email: h.holder@worc.ac.uk

Helen has recently been appointed as Principal Lecturer and Head of Department Apprenticeships and CPD at the University.

She qualified as a Registered Adult Nurse at the Queen Elizabeth School of Nursing, Birmingham in 1986 and worked in a variety of acute adult settings including neurosurgery, general medicine, gastroenterology and as a Clinical Nurse Specialist in Nutritional Support before moving into academia in 2002.

Helen has a wide range of experience as a dual professional nurse and academic in higher education including, pre-registration nursing and CPD courses, course leadership in BSc (Hons) Nursing and more recently, the BSc (Hons) Registered Nursing Degree Apprenticeship. Helen's specific areas of interest are acute adult nursing, including nutritional support, gastroenterology, clinical skills and evidence-based practice/research. Helen also has a key interest in the role of the Personal Tutor in undergraduate nurse education. This topic is the subject of Helen's research for her Educational Doctorate and is currently in the final year of study.

Qualifications

Doctor of Education in, An exploration of the professional relationship between Nurse Academic Personal Tutors and Student Nurse Tutees, using the critical lens of Lefebvre and Bourdieu in undergraduate nurse education in higher education.

Awarded by Birmingham City University April 2023.

Postgraduate Certificate in Research Practice

MSc in Nutrition Support with Distinction

MA in Education with Distinction

Diploma in Professional Studies in Nursing

Level 3 Award in Leadership and Management

Teaching Interests

Helen's main areas of teaching in undergraduate and post graduate nurse education as a module, pathway and course leader includes professionalism, acute adult nursing, skills and simulation, nutrition, gastroenterology and evidence-based practice/research.

Helen has also been an active member of the Doctoral Research College as an Educational Doctorate student at Birmingham City University since 2016 to date, which has included sharing new and innovative research practice with other doctoral students both locally and nationally (see conference presentations). 

Research Interests

Nutrition Risk Screening Tools: A Comparative Investigation into Selected Aspects of Validity and Clinical Use. This research was carried out as a pilot project as part of MSc Nutrition Support in July / August 2000. During this course Helen published 2 earlier clinical journal articles (1994 and 1996) which are available on request.

Students’ perceptions of the use of an interactive virtual patient case to support teaching, learning and assessment in a specialist health care module. (Dissertation MA Education) July 2009. This research was carried out when Helen was Gastroenterology Pathway Leaders for a variety Post Registration Level 6 modules. The study was also published in a local journal (Holder 2010 below)

Doctorate of Education (Ed D) Student nurse perceptions and experience of the personal tutor on an undergraduate nursing course – a pilot project (Holder 2020 below). This pilot project was conducted due to Helen`s interest in the Personal Tutor role as course leader on the BSc (Hons) Nursing.

Ed D Research project: An exploration of the professional relationship between nurse academic personal tutors and student nurse tutees, using the critical lens of Lefebvre and Bourdieu in undergraduate nurse education in HE (In final Year). The data for this research was collected during the COVID-19 pandemic which impacted on the research methodology and participant experience of personal tutorials where meeting spaces were moved from campus to online via MS Teams.

Helen is also interested in research methodologies and has explored the use of Self-Interview (Keightley et al 2012), in the Pilot Project and Research Project above. This was pertinent as data collection took place during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Professional Bodies

Nursing and Midwifery Council:

  • Registered Nurse
  • Specialist Practitioner (Adult Nursing)
  • Teacher

Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA)

Recent Publications

Webinars

Holder, H (2023) “Personal Tutoring in Undergraduate Nurse education. What`s love got to do with it?” UKAT Tutoring Matters Webinar Series. Thursday 16th February 2023. Virtual

 

Publications

HOLDER, H (2020) Student nurse perceptions and experience of the personal tutor on an undergraduate nursing course – a pilot project. Practice, Contemporary Issues in Practitioner Education. 2(1) pp86-102

HOLDER, H (2020) Malnutrition in the Elderly: A public Health Concern. British Journal of Nursing 29(2) pp118-119

HOLDER, H (2016) Chapter 10 Nutrition and Hydration in SMITH A, KISIEL, M,RADFORD, M (Eds) (2016) Oxford Handbook of Surgical Nursing. Oxford: Oxford University Press IBSN 978-0-19-964266-3

HARLEY, K, HOLDER, H (2012) Chapter 9 Nutrition: Feeding a patient, fluid balance and nasogastric feeding In ALDRIDGE, M, WANLESS, S (2012) Developing Healthcare skills through simulation. London: Sage IBSN 978-1-4462-0124-4

HOLDER, H (2010) Students` perceptions of the use of an interactive virtual patient case to support teaching, learning and assessment in a specialist health care module. BCU e-Journal LATHE (Learning and Teaching in Higher Education), 1(1) p1-25

HOLDER, H (2009) Starving amidst plenty: malnutrition is still a problem. British Journal of Nursing 18(19) p1158

HOLDER, H (2003) Usage of sip feeds in elderly care. Nursing Times, Nutrition Supplement, 99(6) p50-51

HOLDER, H (2003) Nursing Management of nutrition in cancer and palliative care. British Journal of Nursing, 12(11) p667-674

HOLDER, H (2002) Nutritional supplementation in unwell elderly people. Nursing Times (NTPLUS) 98(34), pp57-58

ARROWSMITH, H (1999) A critical evaluation of the use of nutrition screening tools by nurses. British Journal of Nursing Vol 8, No 22 p1483 - 1490

ARROWSMITH, H (1999) Case study approach to peripherally inserted central catheters. British Journal of Nursing Vol 8, No 18 p1231 – 1238

ARROWSMITH, H (1997) Malnutrition in hospital: detection and consequences. British Journal of Nursing Vol 6, No 19 p1131 – 1135

Conference Presentations

25-26 Nov 2022 - Presentation: "A doctoral learning journey with a focus on Self-interview as a method of data collection in a global pandemic." International Professional Development Association (IPDA) International Conference.

18th June 22. Presentation - “A doctoral learning journey with a focus on Self-interview as a method of data collection in s global pandemic.” Oxford Brookes EdD Colloquium.

15th June 21. Space, time and everyday life research round table (BCU). Presentation and round table discussion on research project “A critical exploration of the professional relationship between nurse academic personal tutors and student nurse tutees in undergraduate nurse education in higher education.” (Holder 2021)

31st March 2021 UKAT conference. Lightening talk (Holder, H 2021) “What`s Love Got to Do with it!” Researching the notion of professional love in nurse education.

27th November 2020 International Professional Development Association (IPDA) conference (Helen Holder and Tony Armstrong 2020) Presentation, “What`s Love Got to Do with it!”

29th November 2019 International Professional Development Association (IPDA) conference (Holder 2019) Round table discussion entitled “Neoliberal technician or professional relationships? Using rhythmnanalysis to creatively explore the nurse academic personal tutor: student nurse relationship.”

3rd July 2018, CSPACE conference Birmingham City University. Poster presentation - Student nurse perceptions and experience of the personal tutor on an undergraduate nursing course

12th June 2018, Annual Research Conference University of Wolverhampton – Poster Presentation - Student nurse perceptions and experience of the personal tutor on an undergraduate nursing course

24th November 2017 International Professional Development Association (IPDA) conference. Mitchell, S, Crimmons, C, Holder H (2017) A workshop on Bernstein`s Model as a Research Tool.

Best staff poster winner at the BCU Faculty of Health 5th Annual Conference in November 2009, also presented at HEA conference in June 2010.

External Roles

  • External Examiner EPA University of Hull from July 22 (ongoing)
  • External Examiner University of West England (2010 – 2014)
  • Academic Member of the UK Advisory and Tutoring Association (UKAT)
  • British Journal of Nursing – member of the editorial board and reviewer since the 1990s
  • Winner of British Journal of Nursing Nutrition Award (2003)
  • Member of National Nurses Nutrition Group (1992-2002), a subgroup of the British Association of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition