Professor Tania Hart

I am a PhD, professionally qualified, Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), registered Nurse and Nurse Teacher, who is a Professor in Mental Health Nursing and Healthcare Knowledge Exchange. I am also a Senior Fellow (Higher Education Academy). This professional status has enabled me to lead many innovative healthcare related projects. These projects can be compartmentalised into two themes: 1. workforce development and continual professional development (CPD) 2. mental health and wellbeing promotion research activity.

I presently manage a portfolio of Knowledge Exchange projects in the School of Nursing and Midwifery supporting several NHS workforce development agendas. I am also research active undertaking my own research and supporting students undertaking research linked to NHS workforce development, or mental health or health promotion. 

Institute of Health and Social Care

• Hart, T and O’Reilly, M. (2022). Perspectives on what schools and mental health services can do about bullying of adolescents with severe emotional health conditions, Pastoral Care in Education, 40:1, 4-24.
• Hart, T., Williamson, I., Clifton, A., Chouhan, J., Lond, B., Bell, J., Wheatley, M and Ochieng, B (Community Engagement Social Isolation and Coping with COVID-19 in Leicester (SiCCiL Project) (2022). Unpublished, Commissioned Report for Leicester City Public Health Department. Jan 22.
• Mitchell, H.A., Berardi, A., Gaved, M., Hart, T. and Davies, G. (2020). Report British Academy Developing a community-based mental health improvement programme in Guyana through inter- disciplinary participatory action research. ARCLIGHT final report submitted to British Academy (30/11/20).
• Hart, T., Bird D and Farmer R. (2019). Using blackboard collaborate, a digital web conference tool, to support nursing student’s placement learning: A pilot study exploring its impact. Nurse Education Practice. 38:72-78.
• Hart, T and O'Reilly, M. (2018). ‘The challenges of sharing information when a young person is experiencing severe emotional difficulties: implications for schools and CAMHS. Child Adolescent Mental Health, 23: 235-242.
• Hart, T (2017). How do teenage school children, experiencing significant emotional mental health difficulties, perceive they can be better supported at school? Education and Health Journal. Vol.35 No.2, 2017.
• Hart, T., Eccles, G., Bird, D., and Wickes, S. (2017). Psychosocially supporting the teenager with ADHD. Independent Nurse. 2017(8).
• Hart T., Bird, D and Holloway, J. (2016). Addressing Concordance issues: How motivational interviewing strategies can complement the nurse prescriber consultation. Nurse Prescriber Journal. Vol 14 (10). Pp: 510-515
• Hart T., (2016): How Can Young People, aged 14-16 Years with Mental Health Problems, Be Better Supported in Mainstream Education? University of Leicester. Thesis.

Publication of textbooks and teaching materials

• Hart, T and Eccles, G. (2021). Chapter 12 - Communication in Research, Evaluation and Audit in O’Reilly, M., and Lester, J., (2021). Improving communication in mental health settings: Evidence-based recommendations from practitioner-led research. London: Routledge.
• Mitchell, H., Berardi, A., Gaved, M., Hart, T., Davis, G and Collins, K. (2020) ARCLIGHT Community Mental Health Resilience Handbook. The Open University Press. ISBN: 978-1-831171-1-5. Cobra collective.

Publications before 2016 not listed.

I have been involved in various national and international enterprise projects and evaluations that primarily focus on the promotion of wellbeing and resilience amongst differing child and adult populations. I have a special interest in children and young people's mental health and wellbeing and how mental health and wellbeing can be promoted in the school setting.

My research related to workforce development, primarily focuses on the evaluation of new ways of working and new roles as well as exploring how continual professional development is shaped to ensure it is fit for purpose and practice.

I am a qualitative researcher who enjoys research methods which explore in more depth the uniqueness of human experience especially through creative participatory methods which explore how people can be empowered to help themselves.

I have extensive teaching experience having over the years taught across multi-professional, undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, namely, nursing, psychology, school teaching, early years, paramedicine, policing, criminal justice, and medicine. I also possess extensive experience of leading the design and validation of HEI nursing curriculums and interprofessional validated and non-validated health related CPD education.

My teaching expertise being:

• Interpersonal communication in healthcare
• Low intensity psychological therapeutic approaches e.g., low intensity CBT, solution-focused approaches
• Motivational interviewing
• Restorative Clinical Supervision
• Severe mental illness and recovery focused care
• Child and adolescent mental health
• Mental health promotion
• Eating Disorders
• School mental health
• Mental health and wellbeing promotion
• Patient and public involvement (PPI)
• Leadership with a specialist interest in emotional intelligent leadership
• Workforce development e.g., new ways of working, the introduction of new roles and CPD
• Qualitative research methods, participatory methods, PPI involvement in research, and ethical and methodological considerations when carrying out research with children and young people

• PhD. Department of Neuroscience, Psychology and Behaviour. The University of Leicester.
• MSc (Research Methods). Staffordshire University.
• BSc (Hons) (Mental Health Nursing). 1st Class Hon’s. Staffordshire University.
• Registered Mental Nurse. South Birmingham Health Authority.
• Registered Nurse Teacher. Nursing Midwifery Council.
• Senior Fellow of Higher Education Academy. Higher Education Academy (HEA)1995: Certificate in Adult Education. Southampton University.

BSc Nursing and MSc Professional Clinical Practice

• 2008: Teaching Fellowship Award: The University Northampton. Awarded for piloting and evaluating teaching and learning which aimed to develop the emotional intelligence of 1st year nursing students.
• 2019: London. UK. Parkes, J and T, Hart - Nursing Times Award 2019. ‘Gazeley Centre, Lutterworth, for those newly diagnosed with dementia’. The University of Northampton and De Montfort University achieved runner up status being one of the four selected finalists.

Mental Health Nurse Academics UK (MHNAUK) (Member)

• Nursing Midwifery Council (NMC) (Certified professional body member).
• Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Motivational Interviewer National Trainer (MINT) Network (Certified member) visit: https://motivationalinterviewing.org/profile/taniahart
• Mental Health First Aid England (Certified Professional body member)

An example of Present Workforce Development Projects (Knowledge Exchange)

• Present: Project manage a tendered NHS England national workforce development project whereby DMU are equipping approx 380 Professional Nurse Advocates and Professional Midwifery Advocates from across the nation to undertake this new role. DMU is therefore playing a part in this national NHS agenda, which aims to have 1 in 20 nurses trained as PNA’s, who will support nurse wellbeing and promote the quality and safety of care delivery.
• Present: Project manage a multi-professional motivational interviewing, locally commissioned, CPD project, entitled, Strengthening Conversations for Change (SCC). To date, over 240 Leicestershire health and social care professionals have accessed this CPD training. Evaluation data from these participants and those commissioning the training suggest SCC is having a positive influence on patient care.
• Present: I support strategically a team of perioperative specialist academics to deliver and evaluate a tendered pilot NHS England national workforce development project which aims to upskill nurses to work in the theatre environment.

International Conference

• 7th Sept 2023: Birmingham. UK. Reporting the findings from the STaRS (Siblings Together are Really Stronger) research project, which explored how the wellbeing of siblings of children with life-limiting conditions can be promoted. International Conference 2023. Global Solutions to Working with Vulnerable Children and Young people.
• May 31st - June 4th, 2021: Georgetown. Guyana. The 4th Caribbean Studies Association conference. Presentation by Mitchell, H.A and T, Hart. Using digital technology. Informing Guyanese wellbeing through positive mental health resilient stories: a community-based mental health initiative using digital technology.
• 3rd Nov 2021: Online Event London UK. Invited symposium/workshop speakers. Hart, T and Mitchell, H. to a British Academy International Virtual Conference Event.
• 7th- 9th 2017: Stockholm. Sweden. 6th ENSEC 2017. Theme Diversity. Presentation by T, Hart. ‘Strengthening our assistance by ensuring children have their say and their voices are valued’.

Local and National Conferences

• 2th May 2022: Northampton. UK. Mental health conference on-line event. Invited Keynote speaker by St Andrews Healthcare Light Bulb St Andrews School Mental Wellness programme. Presentation by T Hart ‘Promoting wellbeing in schools through motivational interviewing’.
• 13th - 19th Nov 2021: Leicester. UK. Invited workshop speakers, T Hart and L, Williams, at the LLR QI Virtual World Café Conference Event.
• 14th/15th Oct 2021: T Hart. was the event organiser, keynote speaker and presentation speaker for a two-day online training event; Mental Health in Schools conference. De Montfort University and Leicestershire Partnership Trust. Target audience schoolteachers and those working in schools.
• 9th March 2021: Virtual streamed event. De Montfort University. Leicester. UK. A. DMU Festival of Teaching: The Challenge of Change. Online conference. Presentation by, Hart, T., Ochieng, B and Clifton, ‘Psychological Resilience in the Covid19 Pandemic’.
• 15th-17th June 2020: Milton Keynes, The Open University. Milton Keynes. UK. In Murphy, V. (ed.). Proceedings of The Open University Computers and Learning Research Group Annual Conference. Presentation by Gaved, M., Berardi, A., Collins, K., Davies, G., Hart, T., and Mitchell, ‘Taking participatory action research approaches in a time of pandemic’.
• 12th May 2018: St Andrews Hospital. Northampton. UK. St Andrew’s College School Mental Health Conference. Invited speaker. ‘The role of the designated mental health lead in schools’.
• 22nd Nov 2019: DMU. Leicester. UK. Invited Keynote Speaker. Showcasing a New Multi-Agency Educational Project. DMU. Leicester Partnership Trust: Quality Improvement Conference 2019.
• 14th June 2016: University of Leicester. UK. Invited speaker. Strengthening our assistance by ensuring children have their say and their voices are valued. BELMAS.

Conference presentations before 2016 not listed.

School Mental Health  - I have supported the NHS in Leicestershire with their mental health in schools programme and have also supported charities undertaking work in schools that aims to promote resilence.

• Kirsty Mason - 1st Supervisor (Broader topic area - workforce development)
• Estefania Delerue - 1st Supervisor (Broader topic area - workforce development)
• Lynn MacDiarmid - 2nd Supervisor (Broader topic area - mental health promotion)
• Emmanuela Bediako - 2nd supervisor (Broader topic area - health promotion)
• Jane Amedzro - 2nd Supervisor (Broader topic area - health promotion)

• 2023 - Principal Investigator leading a research evidence gap summary project (REGS) for the NHS Chief Nursing Officer Team. Impact: This work was part of a larger demand signalling project that will provide direction to the NHS Chief Mental Health Nurses as to the next steps that need to be taken regarding funding national research or CPD commissioning, linked to mental health nursing care.
• 2022 - Co-investigator for a LCC and DMU commissioned evaluation project, entitled; ‘A Mental Health and Wellbeing Evaluation of services commissioned for the Better Mental Health Fund Grant in Leicester’. This work aims to help better inform local mental health commissioners as to how to best spend mental health commissioning funds.
• 2022 - The ‘H2A: Lifestyle, Leicester Wellbeing Project’. Funded by Leicester City Council (LCC), Public Health Department research project. As a co investigator I worked with academics from sports, health, and data science and colleagues from LCC. The research data obtained aimed to inform Leicester city public health colleagues as to how they may strengthen their whole systems approach to healthy weight across Leicester.
• 2021 - A COVID-19 in Leicester project’. "Social Isolation and Coping with COVID-19 in Leicester’ (SiCCil). A Local Plus grant project. Co-investigator. Project data identified gaps in local authority pandemic support and how commissioners may have address these to better serve the needs of more vulnerable populations.
• 2020 - Co Investigator with a colleague from the charity ‘Together for Short Lives’ a Burdett Nursing Trust funded project entitled ‘Siblings Together are Really Stronger’ (STaRS). Project findings will contribute rarely explored knowledge related to how we can better support siblings of those with life limiting conditions. An outcome of the study is to disseminate this knowledge more widely to schools.
• 2018 - Co Investigator with colleagues from the Open University and the University of Guyana undertaking a British Academy Knowledge Frontiers International Interdisciplinary grant funded project, entitled : ‘Co-producing a community-based mental health improvement programme in Guyana through interdisciplinary participatory action research’. The study was co produced with three differing Guyanese communities (an indigenous remote community, a rural and city community). The study finding helped to develop the first Guyanese mental health handbook and elearning course for Guyanese health and social care practitioners.
• 2017- As Principal Investigator I led a charity funded evaluation of a Leicestershire dementia service (Lutterworth Care and Share) The recommendations of this service evaluation influenced service delivery, whereby the the service model to promote service capacity.
• 2017 - As Principal Investigator I led a tendering exercise to secured funds to carry out an evaluation of a London schools’ school-based resiliency project. I handed over the leadership of this project to colleagues upon my departure from the University of Northampton. The evaluation of the project went onto influence local authority mental health in schools, commissioning across parts of London.
• 2016 - Work package lead (one of three work packages) for a University of Northampton Social Enterprise Change Maker project which focused on improving local dementia care services. My contribution being to explore how university students may be supported to get more involved in voluntary dementia related work, therefore promoting student employability. Impact: this ‘Changemaker Social Enterprise’ project promoted Northampton’s University’s status in dementia care research and helped to strengthen the integration of dementia services/organisations across the county.

Projects before 2016 not listed.

Reports

• 2017: Government Select Committee input – see Parliamentary Select Report (2017) Written evidence submitted by T, Hart (CMH0097) Children and young people’s mental health and the role of education.

In the Media

• PRESS ARTICLE: Newspaper article: Guyana News Stabroek UK team carry out mental health resilience study to guide cultural appropriate education initiatives. May 26, 2019.
• PRESS ARTICLE: Northampton Chronicle and Echo (2017). Pupils ‘suffering in silence’ with mental health issues university of Northampton expert warns. 6/3/2017. 

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3091-0633