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Dr Anita Laidlaw

Dr Anita Laidlaw
Dr Anita Laidlaw
Dr Anita Laidlaw

Director of CHERI and Reader

Accepting PhDs

About
School/Department
School of Medicine, Medical Sciences and Nutrition

Biography

I have been involved in healthcare education for many years including teaching medical students, dental nurses and health psychology students. Following postdoctoral research, I became an education focused academic and have developed and run accredited training, with a focus on behavioural science, clinical communication and research skills. I've always been curious about students and teaching and this led me to conduct educational research, both healthcare and higher education research. 

I've always enjoyed supporting others to develop their careers. I have a particular interest in supporting others to engage in high quality educational research and have had previous leadership positions which have enabled me to do precisely that. My current position as Director of the Centre for Healthcare Education Research and Innovation (CHERI) also allows me to support others in educational research.  

Memberships and Affiliations

Internal Memberships

Director of the Centre for Healthcare Education Research and Innovation (CHERI)

External Memberships

Member of the Education Research Committee Association for the study of Medical Education (ASME)

Member of the Research Committee International Association for Communication in Healthcare (EACH) (and co-lead for training)

Board member of the Scottish Medical Education Research Consortium (SMERC)

Research

Research Overview

I conduct research with two main areas of focus which overlap. One area includes the wellbeing of students, healthcare professionals and academic staff. Wellbeing is defined broadly and includes research covering the intersection of wellbeing with retention in a programme of study, the workforce, and career pathways and opportunities.

The second area of research focuses on clinical communication practice and training. Particular areas of interest include clinical communication around weight management, and specific approaches to enhancing clinical empathy. This latter area covers clinical empathy between health professional and patient, but also inter-professionally.

My approach to research is pragmatic meaning I apply approaches and theoretical models or frameworks that suit the research questions posed. The methods I utilise to collect data vary including routinely collected educational data, survey methodology, behavioural coding of video recorded behaviour, focus groups and interviews. I also use research synthesis approaches. 

Research Areas

Accepting PhDs

I am currently accepting PhDs in Nutrition and Health.

Please get in touch if you would like to discuss your research ideas further.

Nutrition and Health

Supervising
Accepting PhDs
View Research Area

Research Specialisms

  • Education Policy
  • Education Studies
  • Health and Social Care
  • Higher Education
  • Work Placement Experience (Personal Learning)

Our research specialisms are based on the Higher Education Classification of Subjects (HECoS) which is HESA open data, published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.

Supervision

My current supervision areas are: Nutrition and Health.

I currently supervise two PhD students, both based at the University of St Andrews. 

India Pinker is conducting research into using empathy maps to teach clinical empathy to healthcare students via online interprofessional workshops. 

Fiston Kitema is developing and evaluating interprofessional training for healthcare students in eye care in Rwanda. 

Publications

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Books and Reports

Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings

Contributions to Conferences

Contributions to Journals

Contributions to Specialist Publications

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