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Dr Collette Straughair

Associate Professor

Department: Nursing, Midwifery & Health

Collette -Straughair ,-Northumbria -University -web

Collette Straughair is a Registered Nurse and Registered Midwife who joined Northumbria University in September 2005 as a Senior Lecturer in Adult Nursing.

Since joining the university she has developed a research interest in the concept of compassion in nursing and has recently completed doctoral research to investigate this phenomenon. She has delivered conference presentations and published on this subject and plans to continue investigating this area of interest through post-doctoral research activity. She is Programme Leader to a cohort of adult nursing students and Personal Tutor to a smaller group of personal students. She is involved in the delivery of teaching across all years of the undergraduate nursing programme and student assessment at levels 4, 5, 6 and 7. 

Collette Straughair commenced her Registered Nurse training in January 1987 and undertook one of the very first programmes in the North East region to qualify with Registered Nurse status and a Diploma in Nursing Sciences, awarded by Newcastle Polytechnic. Following qualification she worked in various Staff Nurse positions in the specialties of medicine and elderly care. In 1999 she commenced an 18 month programme to achieve Registered Midwife status and graduated with a first class honours degree, subsequently working in Hartlepool and North Tees NHS Trust and City Hospitals Sunderland NHS trust as a Staff Midwife across all areas of midwifery practice in primary and secondary care. She went on to work as a Health Care Assistant Development Nurse and implemented an educational programme for Health Care Assistants in the Sunderland area before moving to South Tyneside to take up a role as a Practice Development Nurse in the medicine and elderly care directorate.  Since September 2005, Collette has worked at Northumbria University as a Senior Lecturer in Adult Nursing and has recently completed her PhD entitled: “Understanding compassion: A constructivist grounded theory study to explore the perceptions of individuals who have experienced nursing care”.

Campus Address

H212
Coach Lane Campus East


  • Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
  • Educators’ perceptions of their experiences of transnational education in nursing: A grounded theory study, Straughair, C., Allan, J., Conner, A., Morgan, D., Machin, A. 1 Jul 2023, In: Nurse Education in Practice
  • Innovations to enhance inclusion for academic staff who have caring commitments outside the workplace, Straughair, C., Jackson, S. 16 Mar 2023, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Conference 2023
  • Compassion in nursing: exploring the perceptions of students and academics, Straughair, C., Machin, A. 30 Jun 2021, In: Nursing Standard
  • A constructivist grounded theory study to explore compassion through the perceptions of individuals who have experienced nursing care, Straughair, C., Clarke, A., Machin, A. 1 Jul 2019, In: Journal of Advanced Nursing
  • Cultivating compassion in nursing: a grounded theory study to explore the perceptions of individuals who have experienced nursing care as patients., Straughair, C. Feb 2019, In: Nurse Education in Practice
  • Practice…, more practice, and deliberate practice: Investigating the effects of deliberate practice on the performance, confidence, knowledge and motivation of undergraduate nursing student’s recognition of a deteriorating patient, Platt, A., Prescott-Clements, L., Allan, J., Tucker, G., Straughair, C., Scott, M., Unsworth, J., Moss, M. Apr 2013, Association for Simulated Practice in Healthcare and Scottish Clincal Skills Network Scottish Symposium
  • Exploring compassion: implications for contemporary nursing (Part 1), Straughair, C. 8 Feb 2012, In: British Journal of Nursing
  • Exploring compassion: implications for contemporary nursing (Part 2), Straughair, C. Feb 2012, In: British Journal of Nursing
  • Safeguarding vulnerable adults: the role of the registered nurse, Straughair, C. 13 Jul 2011, In: Nursing Standard

  • Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
  • Oral presentation: Enhancing inclusion: understanding the experiences of health care professional academic staff in higher education who have caring commitments outside of the workplace 2023
  • Oral presentation: Innovations to enhance inclusion for academic staff who have caring commitments outside of the workplace 2023
  • Oral presentation: Academic experiences of teaching transnational nurse education overseas 2022
  • Editorial work: Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine (Journal) 2022
  • Examination: A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Study to explore how Nurse Educators make meaning of compassion and understand its role in their professional practice in a Higher Education Institution in the United Kingdom 2021
  • Invited talk: Understanding compassion through the perceptions of patients, students and nurse academics 2020
  • Oral presentation: Compassion in nursing: A grounded theory of patient, student and academic perceptions 2020
  • Examination: Graduate attributes: educational themes and perspectives related to UK nursing 2020
  • Invited talk: Understanding compassion: findings from a doctoral study 2017
  • Oral presentation: Embracing “The Model of Compassion for Humanising Nursing Care” as a Vehicle to Enhance Contemporary Nurse Education 2017

  • Katherine Drape Health professionals decision making in safeguarding practice, an exploration of influencing factors Start Date: 17/01/2024
  • Jaden Allan Learning to be Leaders; Learning leadership and the personal, professional development of nursing students. Start Date: 11/12/2023
  • Helen Merlane Dying to care: A constructivist grounded theory study, to explore the factors that influence student nurse preparedness to care for dying patients. Start Date: 20/06/2023
  • Christopher Warnock TOTO, WE’RE NOT IN KANSAS ANYMORE… AN EARLY CAREER ACADEMIC’S CONSIDERATION OF WHAT LIES BEHIND THE EMERALD CURTAIN OF HIGHER EDUCATION. Start Date: 11/05/2023

  • Nursing PhD March 01 2017
  • Education MSc June 30 2006
  • Midwifery BSc (Hons) September 01 1999
  • Nursing Science DipHE September 01 1987
  • Senior Fellow (SFHEA) 2021
  • Fellow (FHEA) Higher Education Academy (HEA) 2014
  • Registered Midwife RM 2001
  • Registered Nurse RN 1990


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