Melanie J Bird

Melanie Bird is a Registered Nurse (adult) and Principal Fellow of Advance HE. She is Director of Student Experience and Outcomes across the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Social Care.

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Background

With a clinical background in care of the elderly and stroke management and rehabilitation, and an NMC recordable teaching qualification, Melanie joined Anglia Ruskin University in 2005.

During her time at ARU, Melanie has been a pre-registration nursing tutor and module leader for both theory and practice modules within both the pre-registration and post-registration programmes, Teaching and Learning Lead for the Department of Primary and Public Health, Education Champion for the clinical areas that fall outside the NHS placement areas, course leader for the MSc Public Health, and Deputy Head of Primary and Public Health Department.

Working extensively with both NHS and private, voluntary and charitable organisations, Melanie - supported by a wider team of academic staff and learning technologists - has developed innovation in practice learning and has been instrumental in developing virtual and simulated practice experiences and blended placement experiences for nursing students. These developments at ARU have received national recognition and have been shortlisted for several prestigious awards.

Melanie is currently Director of Student Experience and Outcomes. Working extensively with academic colleagues, student population and external stakeholders, Melanie supports the enhancement of study with focus on ensuring parity of experience, innovations to raise outcome potential, and supporting a positive student journey.

Research interests

• Student experience
• Curriculum development
• International student education and academic development

Melanie’s Professional Doctorate (EdD) focused her research on exploring the previous learning experience of international students in order to find out if these influence or have an impact on their expectations when studying at a UK HEI.

Teaching

As Director of Student Experience and Outcomes, Melanie’s teaching is greatly reduced. However, she regularly teaches both pre-registration nursing (adult) students and post-registration students – particularly on the subjects of professionalism, and any stroke or stroke-related content.

Her experience and expertise in stroke management and rehabilitation and with the SafeMedicate Medicine Dosage Calculation Software is utilised extensively within the faculty.

Qualifications

• Principal Fellow of Advance HE (PFHEA)
• Education Doctorate (EdD) – Exploring the previous learning experiences of international students to see if these have an impact when undertaking studies at a UK HEI.
• MSc Medical and Healthcare Education, Anglia Ruskin University
• Postgraduate Diploma (Teaching and Learning), University of Essex
• BSc Nursing (Adult), Anglia Polytechnic University