Dietetics, Nutrition & Biological Sciences - STAFF

BSc (Hons) Dietetics, Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds UK.

PhD ‘Identification of poor nutritional status of non-institutionalised individuals >75 years old.’ The Open University, Queen Margaret College, Edinbrugh.

I am a registered dietitian, lecturer in nutrition and dietetics and joint programme leader for the BSc (Hons) Nutrition programme. I have extensive experience in module development and coordination at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels for programmes in Nutrition & Dietetics from a number of Universities in the UK and Australia. I have developed a number of learning resources for a range of different health professionals eg. nurses and pharmacists and those working in care homes. In 2007-2008 I worked as Nutrition Advisor to the Scottish Government in the writing and consultation of the NHS national catering and nutrition specification for Food, Fluid and Nutritional Care in hospitals in Scotland (published June 2008).

My research interests are in the area of optimising individuals’ dietary and nutrient intakes, nutritional status to improve health outcomes and quality of life in older adults. On completion of my PhD, I worked as a nutrition support coordinator and research fellow in the gastrointestinal unit, Edinburgh University looking at health-related quality of life of individuals receiving long-term enteral nutrition. Work also looked at appetite and satiety in individuals with Crohn’s disease. My work to date has covered experimental, clinical and public health nutrition, including determination of energy requirements in different patient groups, the use of anthropometry as a predictor of health outcomes including the Australian Longitudinal Study of Ageing, optimising dietary and nutritional intakes including an RCT of protein energy supplementation for rehabilitation of hip fracture patients and exploration of food fortification to maximise individuals’ intakes.