All Staff Members | DCB | University of Cumbria

Biography

David qualified as a Registered General Nurse in 1984 following training in the London Hospital (Princess Alexandra's) and Army Medical Service's Schools of Nursing, David went on to specialise in Burns and Plastic Surgery nursing at St Andrew's Hospital, Billericay. David has always had a penchant for education, training and practice development realising its importance in capacity building and capability development at an early stage in his career; fusing his experience through studying the Master of Medical Education programme with the University of Dundee. Picking up additional military expertise such as nuclear, biological and chemical defence coupled with operational experience in Central America, Germany, the Middle East, the Balkans, Northern Ireland, Eastern and Central Africa, SE Asia along with exercises in Bangladesh and China he has consolidated his humanitarian action and disaster management development by undertaking the Master of Public Health (International Pathway) with the University of Liverpool. This career has seen him gradually develop from a secondary care oriented healthcare professional to a public health policy, planner, practitioner and leader whose ontology recognises people in social reality which has continuously driven him to undertake ethnographic research immersed in communities.

He has researched the need to professionalise healthcare managers in the Army and qualitatively explored the reasons for high musculoskeletal morbidity in British troops training to deploy on operations. He has written widely on medical education, nursing history, preparation for operations and decontamination of casualties in chemical, biological and radiological incidents which earned him the Ambroise Pare Award recognising excellence in international military medicine in 2009.

On completing 35 years serving as an Army nurse David has returned to his passion of educating as a part - time lecturer in the University of Cumbria (UoC). He currently leads the Disaster, Humanitarian and Crisis Response program and as stand alone modules at level 4, 5 , 6 and 7 that can be plugged into other UoC programs as well as attracting a CoA. He is also contributing to a new level 7 Internaional Master of Public Health program due to commence in Sep 25.

He maintains his currency by volunteering in a number of international Non Governmental Organisations that provide advocacy, aid and/or assistance to desperate communities intimes of disaster or crisis and is chair of two. He also continues to support the military as a Fellow of the Centre for Military Global Health Engagement (pro bono) as well as undertaking contract work for the Land Warfare Centre writing, Red Teaming and Wargaming.

Qualifications and memberships

Registered General Nurse - 1984

ENB 264 - Burns and Plastic Surgery Nursing - 1987

ENB 998 - Teaching and Assessing in Clinical Practice - 1988

NVQ: City and Guilds D32 Workbased Assessment and D34 Verification - 1994

Diploma of Advanced Nursing Studies - University of Dundee - 1996

Bachelor of Nursing - University of Dundee

Master of Medical Eduction - University of Dundee - 2009

Master of Public Health (International Pathway) - University of Liverpool - 2013

Fellow of the Institute of Healthcare Management - 2009

Fellow of the Royal Society of Public Health - 2012

Member of the Institute of Directors - 2016

Member of the Catastrophe and Conflict Faculty, The Worshipful Society of Apothecaries - 2013

Founding Freeman of the Guild of Nurses - 2016

Freeman of the City of London - 2021

Member of the Royal College of Nursing - 1979

Academic and research interests

Ethnographic Research

Transformative learning, leadership and governance including experiential/self-directed learning.

Using education as a driver to develop capability.

Health as a security lever.

Currently creating capacity in a Northern Ugandan community with a high child HIV/AIDS burden to undertake participatory planning for monitoring and evaluating Antiretroviral Therapy compliance and its relationships with micro nutrition and the social reality of living in poverty.

Developing mobile health and eduction units for communities in middle belt Nigeria.

Developing a pilot study to identify the human factors that affect service leavers, Reservists, veterans and their families from transitioning between jobs and roles.

Research supervision

BSc (Hons) and MSc learners across IoH and would love to adopt learners developing their dissertations in other institutes.

Publications

2017 - edited by Ed Canfor-Dumas - Health Chapter in 'Understand to Prevent'. Multi National Development Campaign, London.

2016 - edited by Jean Gray - Army Perspectives in a 'A Statue for Mary: The Seacole Legacy'. Mary Seacole Trust., London.

2016 - 'Force preparation for health missions in remote and hostile environments: an experiential study'. Remote Health Middle East Conference, The Westin Hotel, Abu Dhabi. 2 Feb 16.

2016 - 'The Army Nursing Services' response to the Britiish Army in Transition: a Paradigm shift or more of the same?'. Open Lecture at the Business School, Northumbria University - 25 Jan 16.

2015 - Finnegan, Alan, Finnegan, Sara, Bates, David, Ritsperis, Debra, McCourt, Kath and Thomas, Mike (2015), Preparing British Military nurses to deliver nursing care on deployment. An Afghanistan study. Nurse Education Today, 35 (1). pp. 104-112.

2014 - Spires K and Bates D, 'Beatrice Allsop, a nurse on the Western Front'. Soins; la Revue de Reference Infirmiere (786):83-87.

2013 – A Qualitative Study to Determine the Sociological and Societal Factors that Contribute to Musculo-Skeletal Injury in the British Army. University of Liverpool, Dissertation contributing to the award of MPH.

2010 – Identifying the competences required in the Army Medical Services Command and Staff Cadre andhow to acquire them. University of Dundee, Dissertation contributing to the award of Master of Medical Education.

2009 – Reflections on Medical Decontamination in CBRN Events - Medical Corps International Forum. (Ambroise Pare Award)

2008 – How Can we Reduce the CBRN Medical Burden? – Medical Corps International Forum. (Ambroise Pare Award)

2006 – Military and Civilian Joint Training Opportunities – Ambulance Services Institute Newsletter.

2006 – Keynote Speaker – NATO Research and Technology Group 33- Umea, Sweden.

2003 – Implementation of the SPICES model in multi-professional education, Sep 03 issue of Medical Teacher.

2003 - Development of Real Time Medical Surveillance System to detect CBRN events, NBC Newsletter and contributed to poster presentation for NATO DGP WMD Initiatives Conference in Prague.

1998 - 'Full Circle, The Development of British Military Burns Teams'. British Burns Association Poster Presentation. Historical research paper in collaboration with consultant plastic surgeons at Royal Hospital Haslar. Sheffield.

Recent external roles

Assessor for Royal Society of Pulic Health, Health and Wellbeing Awards.

Assessor for RCN Wales and RCN England Nurse of the Year Award.

Middle East experience procurating examinations.