Debbie was awarded a Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) Research fund to conduct her study into the clincial reasoning of cardiorespiartroy physiotherapists as part of her Educational Doctorate.
Debbie continued to develop her knowledge about simulation and has been awarded several educational grants to develop and evaluate simulation-based educational programmes for both the undergraduate and post-graduates to prepare to undertake emergency on-call respiratory duties. The outcome from this work showed that the simulation programme helped improve Physiotherapists confidence following attending the programme and to feel less anxious about being on call. This is work was presented at the national Chartered Society of Physiotherapy CSP conference 2017 and the World congress of Physiotherapy in South Africa in 2017.
Debbie has worked on educational projects wthin the Research and Assesment Practice (RAP) group within the University and developed new assesment rubrics for several modules as part of this project. She presented the findings of this project at the 8th International Clinical Skills Conference in Prato 2018.
My research is focsued on enabling lifelong active living and healthy ageing through optimising neuro-musculoskeletal health. Specifically, my programme of research involves understanding the mechanisms of movement dysfunction and the development and validation of new technologies for research and clinical assessments. This research encompasses musculoskeletal to neurological diseases and various contexts including sports, occupational readiness, including astronauts in space and military personnel, and healthy ageing.
I have a particualr in interest and expertise in biomechanics of the shoulder and upper limb where I have developed and validated methods for measuring scapular and upper limb kinematics. These have been applied to understanding the biomechanical function of shoulder and neck pain, upper limb function following stroke, through to sports performance such as hand-cycling and swimming.
