Dr Nicholas Drey

Overview

I am a senior lecturer in Health Services Research where I focus on quantitative methods and research ethics.

Previously I have worked in academic roles in the Department of Midwifery (City University London) and the Department of Public Health Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Southampton. I have also worked in the NHS in the Public Health Department of Wessex Regional Health Authority and in the Pharmaceutical Industry for Eli Lilly.

Qualifications

• PG Cert. Academic Practice (Merit), City, University of London, UK, 2011
• Doctor of Philosophy, School of Medicine, University of Southampton, UK, 2000
• Diploma in Epidemiology, Faculty of Public Health, Royal College of Physicians, UK, 1997
• Certificate in Health Economics, University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom, 1994
• Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy, Part 1 Professional Membership, Southampton Institute of Higher Education, United Kingdom, 1992
• Master of Business Administration, University of Glasgow Business School, United Kingdom, 1990
• BA Hons., Archaeology, Hatfield College, University of Durham, United Kingdom, 1988

Fellowships

• South and West RHA Training Fellowship to facilitate a course of study and training leading to a PhD at the University of Southampton (£75,000), South and West RHA/University of Southampton, 1994

Memberships of professional organisations

• Member, John Snow Society, 1995
• Member, Society for Social Medicine, 1993
• 2008- NIHR Investigator- National Institute For Health Research; 1993- Society for Social Medicine (member); 1995- John Snow Society (member)

Award

• South and West RHA (1994) Training Fellowship
  Fellowship to facilitate a course of study and training leading to a PhD at the University of Southampton

Expertise

Geographic Areas

• Europe - Western

Teaching

Teaching

Modules taught:

- NM3209/NMM700- BSc Primary Care/ MSc/PGDip Public Health- Research Methods Module
- NM3270- BSc Professional Practice- Using Research Knowledge
- HSM132 and HS2132- BSc/PGDip Nursing- Experiencing Acute Care, Diagnostics and Treatment
- NM3732- BSc Nursing, Management, Ethics and Law
- NMM003- MSc ISPP- Research Methods
- NMM004- MSc ISPP- Dissertation module
- HMR001- MRes Clinical Research- Introduction to Research Methods
- CRM002- MRes Clinical Research- Application of Research in the Clinical Setting
- HMM005- MSc Health Management- Dissertation module
- RES01- PhD Workshops

Research Overview

Research interests:

- Patient Safety
- Research Ethics and Methodology

Patient Safety and IPC

Patient Safety is the principal focus of my research activity. There are a number of strands to this; principally Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) in acute care settings, but it also includes the supervision of two PhDs related to patient safety issues.

I have collaborated closely with Prof Dinah Gould (University of Cardiff) on a strand of work focusing on understanding which interventions improve hand hygiene compliance and reduce Healthcare Associated Infections. We have authored two Cochrane Systematic Reviews on interventions to improve hand hygiene compliance and are currently updating a third. This work is a collaboration between Dinah Gould (Cardiff University), Nick Drey (City University), Donna Moralejo (Memorial University Newfoundland, Canada) and Jane Chudleigh (Kings College London). The work for the Cochrane Reviews has resulted not only in a published review and update but also a significant number of related research publications. I current hold funding to extend this work to look at patient experiences of being screened for MRSA colonisation.

I supervise 2 PhD students working on IPC which focus on contextual and motivating factors behind compliance with IPC measures S Creedon - Healthcare workers perceptions of empowerment, hospital culture, observed hand hygiene behaviour and healthcare associated infection rates." with Prof D Gould; and A Jeanes-"Improving infection prevention and control compliance through engagement" with Prof D Gould.

The two PhDs that I supervise, focusing on patient safety issues, are: N Castle - "The impact of chemical, biological, radiation, and nuclear personal protective equipment on the performance of low - and high- dexterity airway and vascular access skills." with Prof Gould; and K Harold - "Does the opinion and experience of the patient have a part to play in the management of cytotoxic drug extravasation?" with Prof Gould.

I also supervise two further PhDs which are broadly related to patient safety issues: A Bistiraki "How do different agencies manage public health issues during mass gatherings: an in-depth case study of 2012 London Olympics." With Dr K Waddington, and J Oates - "The mental health and wellbeing of mental health workers" With Dr P Phillips.

Research Ethics & Methodology

The second stream of work focuses on research into methodological issues and more specifically research into research ethics. A number of papers have arisen from this research.

My interest in Research Ethics stems from Chairing the School's Research Ethics Committee and the NSPCC Research Ethics Committee as well as a collaboration with Dr Lorna Ryan (Sociology, City University), we have written an opinion piece on how University RECs work and currently have two more opinion pieces in preparation (the ethical basis for decision making and research ethics in an international context).

Current research/funded projects

Infection Prevention and Control, and Hand Hygiene

A collection of several different research projects which are now coalescing into a research programme, which includes: A Cochrane Review - "Interventions to improve hand hygiene compliance in patient care"; A PhD studentship "Healthcare workers perceptions of empowerment, hospital culture, observed hand hygiene behaviour and healthcare associated infection rates." A series of Review Papers, on the prevention of hospital acquired infections, primarily co-authored with Prof D Gould. I current hold funding to extend this work: 2012 "Patients' experiences of MRSA carriage and decolonisation treatment". City University London Pump-Priming Grant (£3600).

We also developed a Teaching Project- "Developing and using a web-based video to promote student and tutor awareness of the risks and consequences of healthcare-associated infection."

Completed research/funded projects

2007-10 Sexuality in Germany 40 years after Kolle: An Anglo-German collaboration to conduct the largest survey of German's sexuality and sexual behaviour. This work is intended to update the leading German Sexologist- Oswalt Kolle's pioneering work in the 1960's. In collaboration with Pro7 a leading German television company, the work has included designing a large online survey and will involve the analysis of the results. Further qualitative interviews will be undertaken with volunteers later in the year. The work will provide the scientific basis for 5 television documentaries to be screened in 2009.

2007-8 Reducing Infant Mortality in Hackney: Part of a £2 million programme of work to reduce infant mortality in Hackney, involving a collaboration between City University, The Homerton University Hospital Foundation Trust, Team Hackney (Hackney Borough Council) and City, the Shoreditch Trust & Hackney PCT. I am primarily responsible for 2 projects: A pilot case-control study to examine the causes of extremely pre-term birth in African and Caribbean mothers in Hackney and an overall evaluation of the 12 different projects that constitute the Reducing Infant Mortality Programme.

2007-8 Patient concordance with medication in Parkinson's disease: Funded by the Parkinson's disease Society, this is a small qualitative study to examine patient concordance with their medication and they strategies that they adopt to optimise their medication. The study involves a semi-structure interview guide and Framework analysis is employed.

2005-9 Europeristat-II: Funded by the European Commission this is an international collaborative project aimed to harmonise perinatal statistics throughout the countries of the European Union. I am research co-ordinator for work package 5: Positive Indicators of Outcome in Pregnancy. There are three principal strands to this research: developing a European definition of "normal birth" and quantifying it in the European context; Piloting a survey of women's experiences of childbirth in the European Union; and Documenting the role of midwives throughout the European Union.

2005-6 Commitment to Nursing. Funded by the General Nursing Council this project was designed to assess the contribution of continuing professional development and family-friendly policy to nurse retention. It is a mixed methods study employing both quantitative and qualitative methods.

2005-6 Evaluation of Sure Start Collingwood & Stepney Local Programme Midwifery Project. Funded by Sure Start this work involves the evaluation of a small scale midwifery project in a very deprived area of east London. Methods employed included: analysis of routine adapt, interviews with service users and stakeholders- with a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data.

2003-5 Identification and evaluation of standardised datasets for measuring and monitoring access to health care. A Service & Delivery Organisation funded project, its aims were: to review the research on the use of routine data to measure and monitor access to health care, especially for specific groups of people; to review routine data to assess the extent to which they can be used to measure access to health care; to assess data collected on a population basis to ascertain the extent they measure associations between the need for health care and the use of services; to review current NHS initiatives to ascertain what arrangements are being made to routinely monitor their impact on equity of access and to make recommendations for changes to routine datasets and new data collection systems to increase the capacity for measuring and monitoring access to health care.

1999-02 National Renal Satellite Evaluation Study. A national survey of the cost-effectiveness of renal satellite units as providers of renal replacement therapy, funded by the national NHS R&D Programme. My involvement included: the design, the data-collection and statistical analysis and I was also study co-ordinator.

1994-99 The Epidemiology of Diagnosed Chronic Renal Failure in Southampton and Southwest Hampshire Health Authority. This work forms part of a PhD thesis and is supported by Training Fellowship awarded by NHS Executive South and West R&D (£74,893). The work involved extensive use of routine data sets such as HES and locally kept ad hoc clinical datasets as well as detailed medical note review and statistical analysis.

1998-00 Late Referrals in Endstage Renal Failure: A Confidential Enquiry in the South and West Region.

1997-98 Incidence and Outcome of Pauci-Immune Rapidly Progressive Glomerulonephritis (RPGN) in Wessex, UK - a Ten Year Retrospective Study.

1993-97 An Analytical Research Review of the New Immunologic Therapies for Severe Sepsis and Septic Shock. Supported by a research grant from the Medical Research Council (£16,500) and Sponsored by the Intensive Care Society. This study involved the systematic collection and review of clinical trials concerned with the new immunologic therapies for sepsis and an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of each in order to establish and evidence-based approach to their use.

1993-94 Census of Mentally Disordered Offenders and People with Challenging Behaviour in Wessex Regional Health Authority. Collection and analysis of quantitative data on the placement, appropriate or otherwise of the above population and an assessment of the unmet need for secure accommodation.

1989-90 MBA Dissertation: concerning: "A theoretical and practical framework for contracting for health services", based upon the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Unit at Gartnavel Royal Hospital, Glasgow.

Featured publications

1. Jeanes, A., Coen, P.G., Wilson, A.P., Drey, N.S. and Gould, D.J. (2015). Collecting the data but missing the point: validity of hand hygiene audit data. Journal of Hospital Infection, 90(2), pp. 156–162. doi:10.1016/j.jhin.2015.02.018.

   [publisher’s website]

2. Hale, R., Powell, T., Drey, N.S. and Gould, D.J. (2015). Working practices and success of infection prevention and control teams: a scoping study. Journal of Hospital Infection, 89(2), pp. 77–81. doi:10.1016/j.jhin.2014.10.006.

   [publisher’s website]

3. Moore, D. and Drey, N. (2015). E-health and e-ethics: Some ethical and practical considerations when conducting internet research on health forums. Health Psychology Update, 24(1).
4. Harrold, K., Gould, D. and Drey, N. (2013). The efficacy of saline washout technique in the management of exfoliant and vesicant chemotherapy extravasation: A historical case series report. European Journal of Cancer Care.
5. Drey, N., Mckeown, E., Kelly, D. and Gould, D. (2012). Adherence to antiparkinsonian medication: An in-depth qualitative study. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 49(7), pp. 863–871. doi:10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2012.01.012.

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