Professor Val Wilson

McCormack, B., Henderson, E., Wilson, V.J. & Wright, J. 2009, 'Making Practice Visible: The workplace cultural critical analysis tool (WCCAT)', Practice Development in Health Care, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 28-43.
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Emancipatory practice development has a key focus on changing the culture of practice to enable more person-centredness to be developed in the care unit (ward, department or clinic). However, getting `inside? the prevailing practice culture can be challenging and complex and it can be difficult to determine the specific aspects of culture that need to be addressed in a development programme. One way of doing this, and a key process of practice development, is observation of practice. However, many of the tools available for the observation of practice re inconsistent wih the philosophy and values underpinning emancipatory practice development, i.e. they tend towards `judgement? of quality rather than the facilitation of engagement.

Smith, S., Lewis, P. & Wilson, V.J. 2009, 'A 'wee' problem: Using Action Research to facilitate change in urine collection methods', Neonatal, Paediatric & Child Health Nursing, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 15-19.
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Collecting urine specimens from non-toilet trained children can be challenging, invasive and labour intensive, often resulting in distress for children and their families. Methods currently used to collect urine specimens include urine collection bags, in/out catheter or suprapubic aspiration (SPA), all of which are invasive. Several research studies undertaken in the UK suggest urine collection pads as an alternative method of collecting urine samples from non-toilet trained children.

Hooke, N., Lewis, P., Kelly, M., Wilson, V.J. & Jones, S. 2008, 'Making something of it: one ward's application of evidence into practice', Practice Development in Health Care, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 79-91.
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Implementing evidence into practice can be a challenging and time consuming process for clinical teams. We conducted a qualitative study of the experiences of care for children, parents and nurses on an inpatient ward at a tertiary paediatric referral hospital in Sydney, Australia. We considered the conduct of the research to be only one step in a process of change commenced before the initiation of the research project and continuing well after its conclusion. The subsequent step was to share what we had learned with ward staff to enable them to act to improve the experience of care for everybody. This article reports the place of the project in the overall program of change on the ward, the strategies undertaken to share the finding of the research and the ongoing steps being undertaken to translate the research findings into improvements in care. Although the process is incomplete, it continues to gather momentum as the staff celebrate their achievements to date and look for new ways to proceed into the future.

Wilson, V.J., McCormack, B. & Ives, G. 2008, 'Developing healthcare practice through action learning: Individual and group journeys', Action Learning: Research and Practice, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 21-38.
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Action Learning is now a well established strategy for reflective inquiry in healthcare. Whilst a great deal is know about action learning there has been inadequate research on the process of learning that takes place, and the impact that this holds for individuals, groups or organisations. This article reports on the findings of 15-month action learning program based in a special care nursery. A realistic evaluation of the program uncovered individual and group journeys and provide evidence that action learning is an effective strategy in practice development.

Lewis, P., Kelly, M., Wilson, V.J. & Jones, S. 2007, 'What did they say? How children, families and nurses experience 'care'', Journal of Children's and Young People's Nursing, vol. 1, no. 6, pp. 259-266.

Wilson, V.J., Ho, A., Walsh, R. 2007, 'Participatory action research and action learning: changing clinical practice in nursing handover and communication', Journal of Children's and Young People's Nursing, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 85-92.