PhD Student

Population Health Interventions

Current work and interests

Susannah is an NIHR SPHR funded PhD student, based at the University of Cambridge MRC Epidemiology Unit, exploring the framing of obesity and its impact on UK health policy. Susannah is a Registered Nurse and works part time as a Senior Lecturer in Nursing at the University of Exeter. Susannah’s main research interests include obesity, food environments and food policy.

Background and experience

Susannah has a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree and a Postgraduate Certificate in Education. Susannah’s interest in nurse education was initially stimulated by her aspiration to empower future nurses to enhance quality of care. She was an integral member of the team that set up the MSci Nursing programme at Exeter University and was the Clinical Practice Lead for four years. She continues to work collaboratively to develop the profile of the Academy of Nursing through teaching and research activity.

Susannah was a co-investigator for the NIHR funded COVID-NURSE trial, which tested a clinical nursing care protocol for patients infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. She contributed towards the development of the initial survey of nursing staff and the subsequent development of the care protocol. She was responsible for developing and facilitating the staff training programme to enable nursing staff to learn about the protocol and trial it in accordance with the study design, using the FutureLearn platform. She was a contributing author for a series of related publications.

Postgraduate study and her work as a nurse academic have strengthened Susannah’s ambition to engage in public health research. She successfully obtained an NIHR School for Public Health Research PhD studentship, which has enabled her to pursue her research interests in the field of obesity, food environments and food policy.

You can follow Susannah on Twitter @susannah_tooze

You can connect with Susannah on LinkedIn

Publications

Whear R, Abbott RA, Bethel A, Richards DA, Garside R, Cockcroft E, Iles-Smith H, Logan PA, Rafferty AM, Shepherd M, et al (2022). Impact of COVID-19 and other infectious conditions requiring isolation on the provision of and adaptations to fundamental nursing care in hospital in terms of overall patient experience, care quality, functional ability, and treatment outcomes: systematic review. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 78(1), 78-108. Abstract.

Sugg HVR, Richards DA, Russell A, Burnett S, Cockcroft EJ, Thompson Coon J, Cruickshank S, Doris FE, Hunt HA, Iles‐Smith H, et al (2022). Nurses’ strategies for overcoming barriers to fundamental nursing care in patients with COVID‐19 caused by infection with the SARS‐COV‐2 virus: Results from the ‘COVID‐NURSE’ survey. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 79(3), 1003-1017. Abstract.

Richards DA, Sugg HVR, Cockcroft E, Cooper J, Cruickshank S, Doris F, Hulme C, Logan P, Iles-Smith H, Melendez-Torres GJ, et al (2021). COVID-NURSE: evaluation of a fundamental nursing care protocol compared with care as usual on experience of care for noninvasively ventilated patients in hospital with the SARS-CoV-2 virus—protocol for a cluster randomised controlled trial. BMJ Open, 11(5), e046436-e046436. Abstract.

Sugg HVR, Russell A-M, Morgan L, Iles-Smith H, Richards DA, Morley N, Burnett S, Cockcroft E, Thompson Coon J, Cruickshank S, et al (2021). Fundamental nursing care in patients with the SARS-CoV-2 virus: results from the ‘COVID-NURSE’ mixed methods survey into nurses’ experiences of missed care and barriers to care. BMC Nursing