Tony Calvey

Tony is the Course Group Leader for Pre-Registration Nursing with responsibility for the engagement, progression and experience of undergraduate Adult, Child and Mental Health Nursing students.

[email protected]

Background

As a registered mental health nurse he has worked in the Faculty of Health, Social Care & Education full-time since 2008 in a number of roles. Firstly, as a senior lecturer in mental health involved in both the teaching and mental health specific curriculum development in both pre and post registration mental health courses. Prior to this he worked as a lecturer/practitioner working as a Team Leader in a Community Forensic Mental Health Team with a local NHS Trust while employed by ARU to deliver a specific post-registration course training people in Psychosocial Interventions for work with People Experiencing Serious and Enduring mental Illness.

In 2010 he continued his career progression within the FHSCE in the role of Deputy Head of Department & Course Group Leader for Mental Health. Exciting developments within the Faculty have led to his current role as Course Group Leader for the Pre-Registration Nursing Course as a whole. A challenging and exciting role he is engaged in the development, engagement, progression and experience of all undergraduate student nurses and their combined and specific curriculums relevant to their individual fields of nursing. He is currently research active with involvement in individual and joint studies relevant to different aspects of nursing practice.

Research interests

• DProf research: Mental Health Nurses perception on the role and function of Psychotropic drugs.
• The use of OSCEs in the summative assessment of student nurses interpersonal skills
• Pre-Registration Nursing Curriculum design
• History of Psychopharmacology
• Pastoral support in the development of nursing students

DProf study asserts that theory and practice of psychopharmacology for mental health nurses has become complex and fragmented as a result of issues related to misplaced epistemological certainty, questionable science, and inaccurate reporting and media representation of the links between mental illness and the need to take prescribed psychotropic drugs. The study, a qualitative multiple case study design, is aims to understand how and why mental health nurses explain the role that psychotropic drugs play in the treatment of mental illness. Wider objectives will explore factors that are specifically influencing how mental health nurses understand the purpose and function of psychotropic drugs within their clinical practice.

A second area of research involves the evaluation of third mental health student nurses experiences of OSCE’s as a means to summatively assessing their interpersonal and communication skills.

Areas of research supervision

• BSc (Hons) & MSc student supervision – primary focus on Mental Health

Teaching

• Pre-Registration Nursing curriculum – all fields of nursing
• Mental Health pre and post registration courses
• Psychosocial Interventions (PSI)

Qualifications

• BSc (Hons) Health & Social Care, Homerton School of Health Studies
• PG Cert Education, Cambridge University
• Diploma in Applied Social Science, The Open University
• Registered Nurse (Mental Health), Fulbourn School of Nursing
• Thorn Nursing Initiative – Psychosocial Interventions (PSI) for Serious Mental Illness