Linda Ball BA(Hons), MSc, RM, Pg Cert Ed, Midwife Teacher, Online Tutor

Linda Ball

The School of Nursing & Midwifery
Samuel Fox House
Northern General Hospital
Herries Road
Sheffield
S5 7AU
UK

Office:
Tel: +44 (0) 114 222 2036
Fax: +44 (0) 114 226 6970

email : linda.ball@sheffield.ac.uk

Biography

I am a Midwifery & Clinical Skills Teacher and a Practising Midwife. Before taking up my post at the University of Sheffield, I worked as a senior research fellow at Sheffield Hallam University, where I also developed a number of inter-professional skills modules and research programmes for clinicians and community researchers.
Having previously worked at the University of Sheffield as a research fellow (2001 to 2004) I re-joined the School of Nursing & Midwifery in November 2009. I am currently programme lead for the Preparation of Supervisor of Midwives programme and module lead for Contemporary Issues in Midwifery on the on-line Master´s in Midwifery; I also teach clinical skills on the Post Graduate Pre-Reg Adult Nursing course. I am currently the Clinical Skills Lead within the department and have a role both in the development of this facility and of bespoke training provision for NHS staff.

Research Interests

My research interests are in the public health arena and include community based lifestyle change interventions, access to health services, new roles in health care, lay health workers and the measurement of quality of life and wellbeing.

Teaching Interests

My teaching interests are midwifery, clinical skills for nursing/midwifery, and research methods for practice. I continue to practise as a midwife within a local NHS Trust and consider the maintenance of 'live' links with practice to be fundamental in my capacity as both a teacher and researcher. An experienced clinical mentor, I have facilitated research workshops and provided one-to-one support and guidance for a variety of clinical staff and students within the NHS.

Professional activities

I have presented and led workshops at conferences in the UK, USA, Europe and Australasia. I have published my work in peer reviewed journals and am a reviewer for Midwifery and the Journal of Health & Society and the Emergency Medicine Journal (a subsidiary journal of the British Medical Journal).
My research interests are eclectic, with my seminal work lying in the area of midwifery job satisfaction, recruitment and attrition (Why Midwives Leave, 2002; Talking to Managers - 2003), from which I have developed a generic interest in the exploration of the effect of changing organisational & educational cultures and role boundaries upon health care services and health care workers. More recently I have been involved in a range of community engagement/service access and public health intervention projects for Primary Care Trusts across the UK.

I am a member of both the Yorkshire & Humber and the South Yorkshire Clinical Skills Groups and am actively interested in the application of simulation and simulation technology in health care clinical skills teaching.

Key publications

  • Ball L& Nasr N: An exploration of the Health Trainer Role in two Primary Care Trusts in the North of England. Perspectives in Public Health Vol 131, No1, pp 24-31, January 2011
  • Burton M, Ball L, et al: An Evaluation of the Health Trainer Initiative within the Wakefield District Healthcare Service: WDHCT/SHU Publication (September 2010)
  • Ball L, Okasheh R and Whitfield M: Summary evaluation of NE Lincolnshire HT Services 2007 -2009: NE Lincolnshire PCT/SHU Publication (November 2009)
  • Ball L, Okasheh R and Qutshat D: Health Trainers in Primary Care – A handbook of good practice: NE Lincolnshire PCT/SHU Publication (July 2009)
  • Ball L, Wilkinson K et al: An evaluation of a workbook for Health Trainers in prisons and the Wider Community: SHU Publication (August 2008)