Project · Professionalism
Understanding and reducing unprofessional behaviour between healthcare staff.
A multi-year programme of work producing the first cohesive programme theories of how unprofessional behaviours between healthcare staff arise, whom they impact, and how they can be addressed — now informing national research and NHS practice.
This programme began with a two-year NIHR HS&DR-funded realist review (NIHR131606) at the University of Surrey, led with Prof Jill Maben, on which I was the sole research fellow. It produced joint first-author papers in BMC Medicine (highlighted as Editor's Choice and in the 96th percentile on Altmetric) and BMC Health Services Research, a 50,000-word NIHR report, and a practical guide for healthcare staff downloaded over 800 times in its first month.
The work has since grown into a wider research stream: a typology of unprofessional behaviours, a behavioural-science analysis of 44 interventions, and two major new grants — a £700k NIHR mixed-methods study on preventing and reducing unprofessional behaviour in English NHS Trusts (Co-Investigator), and a £300k NHS Race and Health Observatory project on addressing racialised bullying and harassment in the NHS, which I lead as Principal Investigator.
Outputs
Publications so far
Funding
Grants in this programme
- 2025Addressing racialised bullying and harassment in the NHS — £300k, Principal InvestigatorNHS Race and Health Observatory
- 2024Understanding how unprofessional behaviour in English NHS Trusts can be prevented and reduced: a mixed-methods study — £700k, Co-InvestigatorNIHR HS&DR
- 2021 — 2023Strategies to address unprofessional behaviours among staff in acute healthcare settings: a realist review — sole research fellowNIHR HS&DR (NIHR131606) · University of Surrey
Impact
Reach beyond academia
- 2026Invited guest on NHS Race and Health Observatory Podcast: Race and Health Matters
- 2025Invited panellist at NHS Employers "Disability Summit" on psychological safety
- 2024Published guide for addressing unprofessional behaviours between healthcare staff — 800+ downloads in the first month
- 2024Invited speaker at University Hospitals Birmingham "Freedom to Speak Up" day, alongside Prof Mary Dixon-Woods and others
- 2024Presentations to ~200 HR/OD NHS employees ("Big Coffee Break") and to NHS HR professionals at Frimley ICS and wider
- 2023Workshops with NHS Trusts including Great Western NHS FT on reducing unprofessional behaviours
- 2023YQSR Seminar on findings from the realist review
- 2023Publication selected as a BMC Series Highlight