Pauline Pearson
Associate Chaplain for Coach Lane
My first link with what is now Northumbria University was in 1973, when I came to Newcastle Polytechnic to study on a preregistration nursing degree programme (the third or fourth such in the UK). After working in A&E for a year, I trained as a health visitor (also here) and worked in Newcastle for 16 years before becoming an academic. I came back to this University in 2010.
Most of my ‘day job’ is about doing and co-ordinating research about health and social care. I am Research and Innovation Lead for the Department of Healthcare, in the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, based at Coach Lane Campus. My research looks at new ways of doing things in practice, and the experiences of staff and service users. Much of the research I do involves work with older people, with families and communities and in mental health. I also teach on some of our Masters programmes and help in selecting students for the adult nursing degree.
I have always been actively involved with church and in trying to apply my faith in my work. Back in the 1980’s I was involved in working as part of a community health development project – the Riverside Project - and was asked to give evidence to the ‘Faith in the City’ Report. In 2005 I was ordained as a Church of England minister, and in my spare time have served in Denton (in the west end of Newcastle) and now in Jesmond – where I am Associate Priest at St George’s and St Hilda’s. I think that it is important for people of faith to look at how that faith makes a difference in their day to day life.
Whoever you are, staff or student, person of faith or not, I look forward to meeting you.
