Kevin Murphy

Assistant Professor

Department: Nursing, Midwifery & Health

I am currently the Programme Lead for the newly approved Community Sppecialist Pathway Qualification (District Nursing, General Practice Nursing, Adult Social Care Nursing and Community Childrens Nursing). I am also still the Programme Lead for the current Higher Apprenticeship Specialist Practice in District Nursing (HA-SPDN) PG/Dip and MSc, and also teach across pre-registration modules. I currently have a third year pre-registration Personal Tutor (PT) group. I am an external examiner at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA). In 2023, I was awarded the title of Queens Nurse from the QNI, reflecting my ongoing commitment and dedication to supporting and improving community nursing services.

I am undertaking my PhD at Northumbria, focusing on lone working in district nursing and understanding perceptions of risk. My teaching and research interests include community nursing, the education and development of SPDN's and improving staff safety and wellbeing, especially relevant to lone working.

I qualified in 2009 as an RGN, working in Gateshead as a community staff nurse. I joined Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals (NUTH) in 2013 to undertake the District Nursing Specialist Practitioner Qualification (DNSPQ). I qualified as a Specialist Practice Teacher/Senior Charge Nurse in 2016, working in Newcastle District Nursing Services before joining Northumbria on secondment in 2018.

I returned to frontline clinical practice in April 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic as a District Nursing Specialist Practice Teacher. I later returned to the University in a substantive post in February 2021. I still hold a clinical contract and continue to work as a District Nurse in Newcastle, often in out of hours services. I have also gained my Non-Medical Prescribing qualification (V300) where my prescribing interests predominantly lie in palliative care, anticipatory prescribing and managing long-term conditions, including acute exacerbations.

Outside of usual working hours, I often arrange a game of rounders between colleagues from practice and University staff. Although low in athletic ability, we excel in hyper-competitiveness, which is the most diplomatic way I can summarise our efforts.