Maurice Slaven

Maurice Slaven's background lies within the theory and skills of children’s nursing. His interest lies in paediatric palliative care and the historical, religious and cultural concepts as well as the personal experiences of nursing staff involved in the preparation of dead bodies for disposal.

maurice.slaven@aru.ac.uk

Background

Following 15 years in the Royal Air Force, Maurice trained and qualified as a Children’s Nurse at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Edinburgh in 1997, and went on to specialise in oncology and cardiology. From there he worked at West Suffolk Hospital, Bury St Edmunds and Norwich and Norfolk Hospital.

Maurice then followed his passion and worked at East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices (Quidenham, Norfolk) as a Staff Nurse/Shift Leader. In 2000, he took over the role as manager at Quidenham, and for a short time managed the Children’s Hospices at Quidenham and Milton in Cambridge. During this time he studied for and gained BSc (Hons) in Children’s Nursing, distance learning through the NMC.

After managing the hospices for 4 years Maurice decided to change his career pathway and returned to Staff Nurse role working at the James Padget Hospital, Great Yarmouth, and then as Community Children’s Nurse in the same trust. He then returned to Norfolk and Norwich NHS Trust as Paediatric Practice Development Nurse, during which time I studied at UEA and gained MSc (Master of Clinical Education).

In 2010 Maurice decided to follow his love of teaching and moved to Anglia Ruskin University, where he has been a Senior Lecturer in Children’s Nursing.  He is currently personal tutor and module leader for Assessing the needs of children and young people as individuals, and for MSc module Safeguarding children and young people. He is also the link lecturer for Cambridge Community Services, covering an area from Huntingdon to Wisbech.

Research interests

• Children’s Nursing
• How we teach and support students and colleagues when dealing with death
• The focus is to investigate the significance of historical, religious and cultural concepts as well as the personal experiences of nursing staff involved in the preparation of dead bodies for disposal. Consideration of end of life rituals in especial those developed by nurses along with the context and rational for their development.  Consideration how nurse’s experiences of death impacts on their ability to manage the social, spiritual and ethical challenges faced in our modern multi-ethnic and multi-cultural society. Exploration of the idea of emotional safety and determining whether nurses can ensure the emotional wellbeing of themselves and their colleagues whilst caring for deceased patients, along with the methods they employ to cope and promote normality. The focus for my enquiry will be a shift from ‘skills’ model of education, to develop an interpersonal conceptualisation of how we can translate meaningful, individualised learning experiences, through the development of ethical learning partnerships between students and tutor. 

Teaching

Maurice is a Senior Lecturer in Children’s Nursing, currently teach all aspects of Pre-registration Children’s Nursing, including practical skills and the theories of nursing. He's also a module leader and primary teacher for Safeguarding Children and Young People module, post-graduate Master’s Degree. Maurice also teaches on High Dependency and Significant Events in Childhood modules.

Qualifications

• Master of Clinical Education (M Clin Ed), University of East Anglia
• Bachelor of Science BSc (Hons), Children’s Nursing, university of Manchester
• Diploma in Higher Education, Children’s Nursing, Napier University, Edinburgh
• Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), Recordable Teacher, Anglia Ruskin university