Dr Nick Wrycraft

Dr Nick Wrycraft is a Senior Lecturer in mental health nursing and has a specialist interest in working with anxiety and depression, clinical supervision, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, recovery based approaches to mental health care, mental health promotion, service user input, and the inclusion of carers.

nick.wrycraft@aru.ac.uk

Background

Before training as a Mental Health Nurse, Nick worked as a housing officer for a local government department housing office, dealing with rent arrears and neighbour complaints. He also worked part-time as a care assistant in several local nursing homes with stroke survivors who required full care, people with head injuries, those with long-term mental health issues, and in residential homes.

On qualifying as a Mental Health Nurse, Nick worked in a number of different clinical areas, including an inpatient assessment unit for people with dementia, an adult acute mental health unit, and also day services for adults and older people with mental health problems. During this time Nick undertook several brief post-registration courses.  After gaining a Distinction for his Masters’ Degree in Advanced Nursing Practice in 2003 from the University of Essex and the award for the best academic performance on the course, Nick became a Research Facilitator in a Primary Care Trust, promoting the uptake of research among other staff but also initiating and developing research projects and initiatives. During this time he undertook an evaluation of the National Institute for Mental Health for England’s (NIMHE) Eastern region Trailblazers course, which promoted and developed joint projects between primary and secondary mental health care. Disseminating this project led Dr Wrycraft to present the findings at the National Primary Care Research Conference in York, and at the NIMHE National Conference in Durham.

In 2004, Nick joined Anglia Ruskin University, initially to work part-time as a lecturer teaching on the graduate worker in primary care course, training graduate students to work in primary care mental health settings with people with anxiety and depression. In 2005 Nick was employed full-time with Anglia Ruskin University as a Senior Lecturer on the pre-registration mental health nursing course, and has carried on this role through to the present day.  In addition to this, he is the Admissions Tutor for pre-registration mental health nursing, the Module Leader for module 5 of the pre-registration mental health nursing curriculum, and the Research Methodology Module Leader. In the past other roles that Dr Wrycraft has had include:

• Module Tutor for the first module of the pre-registration nursing curriculum
• Course lead and tutor on the Improving Access to Primary Care Therapist (IAPT) low-intensity programme
• Moderator for the CBT diploma, degree and Masters programme
• External examiner for Teesside University post-registration CBT programme

Research interests

The subject of the thesis for Dr Wrycraft’s Masters’ Degree and Professional Doctorate was clinical supervision. He has delivered numerous training courses on this subject for a range of health professionals, ranging from adult and mental health staff to physiotherapists and speech and language therapists and substance misuse workers. His other interests include CBT and brief interventions in primary care settings, and for people with anxiety and depression. More recently he has worked as the academic lead for experts by experience, and contributed to increasing the input of service users on the pre-registration mental health nursing.

Dr Wrycraft has written, co-written and edited a number of books and book chapters, and found writing to be something that he really enjoys. His work has an emphasis on case studies, the narrative experience of people with mental health issues, theories of mental health, the philosophy of time, and the work of mental health nurses, especially assessment and care planning. In his work as Admissions Tutor and as a group facilitator and Module Leader, Nick has endeavoured to support students, encourage them to enjoy learning, and promote the delivery of high quality and genuinely caring nursing.

Areas of research supervision

• Nick is willing to supervise Doctoral candidates
• Qualitative methods

Teaching

Nick has taught pre-registration mental health nursing students and mental health for more than ten years, and led different modules of the pre-registration mental health course and modules on the foundation degree pathway, the low intensity IAPT course and moderated work on the CBT training programme ranging from Diploma to Masters level, and is currently providing supervision for two Doctoral candidates.

His Masters and Doctoral research were on the subject of clinical supervision, and he has led clinical supervision training in practice for district nurses, health visitors, school nurses and mental health nurses, together with professionals from other healthcare disciplines. In addition to this, he has provided mental health focused input on other courses, including adult nurses on diabetes courses and nurse prescribers.

In Nick's role as admissions tutor for pre-registration mental health nursing he has worked widely with the marketing and admissions team, and been active in promoting the course in a variety of settings, delivering talks and promotional events to applicants ranging from year 9 school children to college students, and has extensive experience of planning admissions processes and interviewing applicants.

Specialist areas of interest and teaching include:

• Anxiety and Depression
• Assessment and care planning
• CBT approaches to adult and child and adolescent mental health
• Clinical supervision in nursing and the healthcare professions
• Community based mental health care
• Inter-professional practice
• Involving service users in the pre-registration nurse education
• Mental health promotion
• Recovery and principles based practice
• Social inclusion
• Working with people with depression and anxiety

Nick’s Doctorate was in clinical supervision in primary healthcare. Due to this interest he has been involved in training large numbers of staff from a variety of roles in primary care, ranging from wellbeing practitioners to district nurses, health visitors and speech therapists in clinical supervision.

Qualifications

• Doctorate in Nursing 2012, University of Essex (2003-2012)
• Postgraduate Diploma in Education, Anglia Ruskin University (Distinction) (2007-2008)
• MSc Advanced Clinical Practice Nursing, University of Essex (Distinction) (2001-2003)
• BA (Joint Hons) Philosophy and Literature, University of Essex  (1987-1990)
• Registered Mental Health Nurse and Diploma in Health Education, Anglia Ruskin University (Distinction) (1996-1999)
• Clinical Leadership (Post-registration course), University of Essex (Distinction) (2001)
• Teaching, Supervising and Assessing (ENB 998, Post-registration course), University of Essex (Distinction) (2000)
• The Promotion of Continence and Management of Incontinence (ENB 975, Post-registration course), Anglia Ruskin University (Distinction) (2000)

Memberships, editorial boards

Registered Mental Health Nurse

Selected recent publications

Ryrie I; Coster S; Wrycraft N; Norman I (2018) "Professional practice: Caring for ourselves" In Norman I; Ryrie I (Editors) "The Art and Science of Mental Health Nursing: Principles and Practice." 4th Edition. McGraw-Hill Education. Chapter 40, p.645-667.

Wrycraft N (2018) "Assessment" In Norman I; Ryrie I (Editors) "The Art and Science of Mental Health Nursing: Principles and Practice." 4th Edition. McGraw-Hill Education. Chapter 11, p. 156-173

Wrycraft N; Coad A (Editors) (2017) "Recovery in Mental Health Nursing" Maidenhead, Berkshire: McGraw-Hill: Open University press.

Wrycraft N (2015) "Assessment and Care Planning in Mental Health Nursing." Maidenhead, Berkshire: McGraw-Hill: Open University press.

Coad A; Wrycraft N (Editors) (2015) "CBT Approaches for Children and Young People." Maidenhead, Berkshire: McGraw-Hill: Open University press.

Skinner V; Wrycraft N (2014) "CBT Fundamentals: Cases and Practice." Maidenhead, Berkshire: McGraw-Hill: Open University press.

Wrycraft N (2012) "Case studies in Mental Health Nursing." (Editor) Maidenhead, Berkshire: McGraw-Hill: Open University Press.

Wrycraft N (2009) "An Introduction to Mental Health Nursing." (Editor) Maidenhead, Berkshire: McGraw-Hill: Open University Press.

Schafer T; Amoateng G; Wrycraft N (2009) "An exploratory study of GP perceptions of a primary care counselling service on their practice." British Journal of Guidance and Counselling 37 (1): 1-15.

Wrycraft N (2008) "Preconceptions and the reality of mental illness." In Evans C; Tippins E (Editors) "Fitness for Practice." Berkshire: McGraw-Hill and Open University. Chapter 13: 283-300.

Schafer T; Wrycraft N (2007) "Contributions of Graduate mental health workers in primary care." Nursing Standard 20 (17): 44-49.

Wrycraft N (2006) "Mental Health." In Martin P; Eldridge K (Editors) "Partnerships in Healthcare." London: Quay Books Division, MA Healthcare. Chapter 4, p. 63-90.

Recent presentations and conferences

Conference presentations

Primary Care Research Network Conference, York (2005) "An Evaluations of NIME Eastern Region Trailblazers Project."

Research Reports

Witham, Halstead and Braintree PCT (2005) "An Evaluation of the NIMHE Eastern Region Trailblazers Project."

Witham, Halstead and Braintree PCT (2004) "An Evaluation of the Intermediate Care Team."