About
Chiara is an Associate Professor and she leads the Health Workforce & Systems theme in the School of Health Sciences. She is deputy theme lead for the NIHR ARC Wessex Workforce and Health Systems theme. Chiara leads a research programme around health workforce wellbeing and performance, with a specific focus on work hours and workforce configuration. Chiara's expertise lies in analysing workforce routinely collected data from rostering systems. Her work is supported by NIHR and ESRC grants, and an Academy of Medical Sciences Springboard award.
You can update this in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘Edit profile’. Under the heading and then ‘Curriculum and research description’, select ‘Add profile information’. In the dropdown menu, select - ‘About’.
Write about yourself in the third person. Aim for 100 to 150 words covering the main points about who you are and what you currently do. Clear, simple language is best. You can include specialist or technical terms.
You’ll be able to add details about your research, publications, career and academic history to other sections of your staff profile.
Research
Research interests
- Health workforce organisation
- Shift work
- Occupational health - burnout
- Occupational health - sickness absence
- Patient safety
Current research
- Improving patient safety, workforce wellbeing and NHS efficiency through improved shift patterns for nursing staff
Funded by the Academy of Medical Sciences (Springboard award). This study is the first study that explores possible modifications to shift patterns for nursing staff using the perspectives of nurses, their managers and patients. It deployes a technique from economics – discrete choice experiment to identify nurses’ preferences and trade-offs when it comes to shift patterns. It involves an international advisory group with world-leading interdisciplinary researchers in the field of shift work.
- Developing and applying data science solutions to identify optimal allocation of work hours for nurses
Funded by Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) South Coast Doctoral Partnership. Through this doctoral studentship I have recruited an exceptional doctoral student who is undertaking the first study to apply operational research methods to create multi-criteria optimisation methods that can support rostering and scheduling decisions which are not only cost-effective, but also take into account staff wellbeing and patient outcomes.
- Consequences, costs and cost-effectiveness of different workforce configurations in English acute hospitals: a longitudinal retrospective study using routinely collected data
Funded by NIHR Health and Social Care Delivery Research (HSDR) Programme. Collaboration with Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust. This study seeks to understand how variation in the size and make-up of care teams on hospital wards in England influences patient outcomes and the costs of care. Our research group was the first to use these new sources of information to explore how the mix of staff in the nursing team affected outcomes and cost of care, but it was in one hospital only. This study is expanding our work into three more NHS Trusts located in different geographic areas. As part of this project, I am leading two systematic reviews and the staff outcomes analysis work package.
- A Study to Evaluate the Introduction of new Staffing Models in Intensive Care: a realist evaluation (SEISMIC-R) (Natalie Pattison, University of Hertfordshire)
Funded by NIHR Health and Social Care Delivery Research (HSDR) Programme. Collaboration with University of Hertfordshire, University of Plymouth, Intensive Care National Audit & Research Centre, University of Exeter, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, London South Bank University. Our research plans to look at different staffing models across the UK. We aim to examine new staffing models in ICU across different Trusts. We will examine what combinations of staff numbers and skills result in better patient care and improved survival rates. I co-lead the work package of routinely collected data extraction and analysis.
You can update the information for this section in Pure (opens in a new tab).
Research groups
Any research groups you belong to will automatically appear on your profile. Speak to your line manager if these are incorrect. Please do not raise a ticket in Ask HR.
Research interests
Add up to 5 research interests. The first 3 will appear in your staff profile next to your name. The full list will appear on your research page. Keep these brief and focus on the keywords people may use when searching for your work. Use a different line for each one.
In Pure (opens in a new tab), select ‘Edit profile’. Under the heading 'Curriculum and research description', select 'Add profile information'. In the dropdown menu, select 'Research interests: use separate lines'.
Current research
Update this in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘Edit profile’ and then ‘Curriculum and research description - Current research’.
Describe your current research in 100 to 200 words. Write in the third person. Include broad key terms to help people discover your work, for example, “sustainability” or “fashion textiles”.
Research projects
Research Council funded projects will automatically appear here. The active project name is taken from the finance system.
Publications
Public outputs that list you as an author will appear here, once they’re validated by the ePrints Team. If you’re missing any outputs that you’ve added to Pure, they may be waiting for validation.
Supervision
Current PhD Students
Contact your Faculty Operating Service team to update PhD students you supervise and any you’ve previously supervised. Making this information available will help potential PhD applicants to find you.
Teaching
My education contribution is strongly linked to my research, where I design and deliver courses around patient safety and workforce wellbeing. My education contribution shapes my research, where I co-develop research with students in our programmes.
I am passionate about supporting our students read and critically appraise research, so I have developed a video series in partnership with Elsevier to aid students move their first steps in understanding research: Research video series
As well as a stats-focused tutorial commissioned by the National Centre for Research Methods, to support students reading and interpreting tables from quantitative studies: Descriptive data and inferential statistics by Chiara Dall’Ora and Interpreting tables reporting tests of association and tests of effectiveness by Chiara Dall’Ora
My current teaching contribution is:
- Theme Lead for Influencing Innovation & Change - Human Factors & Patient Safety theme
- Leading sessions linked to my research:
- Health Workforce Wellbeing & Burnout
- Safe Staffing & Resource Allocation
- Patient Safety for Postgraduate Students
You can update your teaching description in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘Edit profile’. Under the heading and then ‘Curriculum and research description’ , select ‘Add profile information’. In the dropdown menu, select – ‘Teaching Interests’. Describe your teaching interests and your current responsibilities. Aim for 200 words maximum.
Courses and modules
Contact the Curriculum and Quality Assurance (CQA) team for your faculty to update this section.
External roles and responsibilities
You can update your external roles and responsibilities in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘+ Add content’ and then ‘Activity’, your ‘Personal’ tab and then ‘Activities’. Choose which activities you want to show on your public profile.
You can hide activities from your public profile. Set the visibility as 'Backend' to only show this information within Pure, or 'Confidential' to make it visible only to you.
Biography
Chiara qualified as a Registered Nurse after completing her Bachelor Degree in Italy, at the Universita' degli Studi di Milano Bicocca in 2011. In 2013 she gained a Masters Degree in Nursing and Midwifery Sciences at the Universita' degli Studi di Milano Bicocca.
In 2018, she was awarded a PhD in Health Sciences at the University of Southampton, where she was then employed as a research fellow. Since 2023, Chiara has been an Associate Professor within the School of Health Sciences, where she splits her time between research and education.
Prizes
- IJNS Rosemary Crow Award (2016)
- Best abstract session presentation HSRUK 2018 (2018)
- IJNS Rosemary Crow Award (2016)
- Best abstract session presentation HSRUK 2018 (2018)
You can update your biography section in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select your ‘Personal’ tab then ‘Edit profile’. Under the heading, and ‘Curriculum and research description’, select ‘Add profile information’. In the dropdown menu, select - ‘Biography’. Aim for no more than 400 words.
This section will only appear if you enter the information into Pure (opens in a new tab).
Prizes
You can update this section in Pure (opens in a new tab). Select ‘+Add content’ and then ‘Prize’. using the ‘Prizes’ section.
You can choose to hide prizes from your public profile. Set the visibility as ‘Backend’ to only show this information within Pure, or ‘Confidential’ to make it visible only to you.