UWS academic recognised for services to nursing in Queen’s Birthday Honours List

Professor Belinda Dewar, Professor of Practice Improvement at University of the West of Scotland’s Institute for Care and Practice Improvement had been recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

Professor Dewar has been awarded an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) award for services to nursing.

Belinda, who joined UWS in 2013, has had extensive experience as a nurse, research and educator. She has been working with nurses, allied health care professionals, patients and families in a range of care settings over the last 25 years to support improving the experience of giving and receiving care. She is committed to approaches to research and development that work with and for people to enable them to become researchers of their own practice.

In 2004 she set up the Centre for the Older Person’s Agenda at Queen Margaret University which carried out research and development work in partnership with older people themselves, practitioners and researchers. In 2006 she was appointed as the first nurse consultant for care Homes across Scotland and worked closely with Scottish Government, regulatory bodies and the health and social care sector to support staff in practice development and quality improvement.

Her recent work that focuses on cultural change using caring conversations has attracted recognition with a wide range of agencies both here and abroad including the Scottish Government, and New South Wales Health, Australia. The caring conversations is an underpinning principle in the successful My Home Life Programme, which Belinda heads up in Scotland. The My Home Life Programme is a national social movement which aims to enhance the lives of those living, working, dying and visiting care homes.

Professor Dewar has an international reputation for expertise in appreciative action research, which uses participative and affirming methods to research attempts to improve practice.  The value of the work is not only the lessons learnt (scientific knowledge), but also, the engagement of users and providers as co-researchers in the educational process of reflecting on and learning from practice, within the context whole systems thinking (social change).  Over the last four years, as Director of My Home Life Scotland, her work has focused primarily on quality improvement in care homes

In 2015 Belinda was named in the Nursing Times Leaders list for 2015. The Nursing Times Leaders recognises and celebrates nurses and midwives who are pioneers, entrepreneurs and inspirational role models in their profession.

Professor Dewar said: “I am delighted and honoured to have been recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.  Throughout my career I have been part of teams who have championed developing practice through approaches that value all those who are involved in the process of giving and receiving care. I feel privileged to have been a part of developing meaningful cultural change across health and social care.”