Dr Valerie Anne Featherstone

• Research Fellow, University of Huddersfiels - start date 1 August 2012.
• Research Fellow, Salford University. April 2010 to July 2012.
• 2009: Consultant qualitative researcher - Cerebra
  (charity for children with brain injury and brain-related neurological conditions).
• 2008 – 2009: Research Associate, Department of Post Graduate Medicine, University of Hull
  (with The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the University of East Anglia).
• 2002 – 2007: Research consultant for the Hull and East Riding Pharmacy Research Network.
   
• 1996 – 2007: Research Facilitator for the NHS Northern and Yorkshire Wolds Primary Care Research Network (WoReN). Hull Primary Care Trust. This was funded by NHS Northern and Yorkshire. WoReN was well known nationally for its qualitative research methods programme to which I significantly contributed to and learned from. I was instrumental in establishing and managing this network and established a research culture in the region. This was considered to be one of the most successful networks at the time and practitioners I collaborated with then still continue to produce excellent research to date. I also organised educational meetings, master classes and conferences.
   
• I have collaborated with, run and managed many primary care research projects involving conditions such as, epilepsy, diabetes, chronic fatigue.
• I have been involved in successful funding bids (Including NIHR bids ) as well as personally gaining project funding and PhD award funding.
• I have close links with Community Pharmacists and academics in East Yorkshire and continue to collaborate with them on research endeavours.

My main interest is around seizures and the differentiation of non epileptic seizures from epileptic ones. I use Phenomenological Approaches and Analyses.

I am currently working on extending my PhD work into a corpus of data which will contribute to a pheneomenological analysis of seizure experiences. This will contribute to evidence on the differential diagnosis of seizure types. I recently gave a conference talk on this subject to the Consciousness and Experiential Section of the British Psychological Society, in Bristol (September 2012). I am interested in qualitative work generally, in long term conditions and unexplained medical symptoms.

I am a Chartered Health Psychologist, a member of the Health Professions Council, and have a practicing certificate. I have a honorary contract to work in a pain clinic in East Yorkshire and hope to extend my practice as a Health Psychologist in Huddersfield.

2013

Topping, A., Nkosana- Nyawata, I., Featherstone, V. and Stephenson, J. (2013) ‘‘Lets join hands and jump together’: Readiness and implementation of skill mix change in general practice’. In: RCN 2013 international nursing research conference. Belfast, Ireland: Royal College of Nursing. p. 15. ISBN 978-1-908782-41-0

Featherstone, V (2013) ‘The Coconut Day: A poetic Interpretation of Seizure Experiences ’ Forum: qualitative social research/Forum qualitative sozialforschung . ISSN 1438-5627

2012

Topping , A., Nkosana-­?Nyawata,, I., Stephenson, J. and Featherstone, V. (2012) ‘Rethinking workforce boundaries: roles, responsibilities and skill mix and readiness for change in general practice’. In: Society of Academic Primary Care Annual Conference "Celebrating Difference" , 2nd-4th October 2012 , SECC Glasgow

2011

Cooper, A., O'Malley, L., Elison, S., Armstrong, R., Featherstone, V., Burnside, G., Adair, P., Dugdill, L., Pine, C. and Cooper, A. (2011) ‘Primary school-based behavioural interventions for preventing caries’ Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (10).

Pheby, D., Lacerda, E., Sakellariou, D., Leite, J., Nacul, L., Drachler, M., Campion, P., Howe, A., Poland, F., Curran, M., Featherstone, V. and Fayyaz, S. (2011) ‘A Disease Register for ME/CFS: Report of a Pilot Study’ BMC Research Notes , 4 (1), p. 139. ISSN 1756-0500

2010

Featherstone, V (2010) Epilepsy in children and young people Available at: http://www.cerebra.org.uk/English/getinformation/conditions/Pages/Epilepsyinchildrenandyoungpeople.aspx

2009

Richmond, S., Brown, S., Campion, P., Porter, A., Moffett, J., Jackson, D., Featherstone, V. and Taylor, A. (2009) ‘Therapeutic effects of magnetic and copper bracelets in osteoarthritis: A randomised placebo-controlled crossover trial’ Complementary Therapies in Medicine , 17 (5-6), pp. 249-256. ISSN 0965-2299

2007

Featherstone, V., Barbour, R. and Garner, J. (2007) ‘A reflection on ten years experience of providing qualitative research training in primary care’ Primary Health Care Research and Development , 8 (3), pp. 198-206. ISSN 1463-4236

Featherstone, V., Haigh, N., Campion, P., Edmondson, H., Tee, K. and Innes, A. (2007) ‘Diabetes related communications in community pharmacy: reflections on the findings from a feasibility study’. In: 13th Health Services Research & Pharmacy Practice Conference, 2nd – 3rd April 2007, Keele, UK

Hilton, A., Edmondson, H. and Featherstone, V. (2007) ‘A report on a focus group discussion on the local implementation of Medicines Use Reviews (MURS)’. In: 13th Health Services Research & Pharmacy Practice Conference, 2nd – 3rd April 2007, Keele, UK

Haigh, N., Campion, P., Featherstone, V., Edmondson, H., Tee, K. and Innes, A. (2007) ‘Diabetes-related communications in community pharmacy: reflections on the findings from a feasibility study’ Primary Health Care Research and Development , 8 (02), p. 147. ISSN 1463-4236

2005

Raghunath, A., Hungin, A., Cornford, C. and Featherstone, V. (2005) ‘Use of Proton Pump Inhibitors: An Exploration of the Attitudes, Knowledge and Perceptions of General Practitioners’ Digestion , 72 (4), pp. 212-218. ISSN 0012-2823

2001

Featherstone, V. and Barbour, R. (2001) ‘Opening the black box: qualitative methods training from the Wolds Primary Care Research Network (WoReN)’ Primary Health Care Research and Development , 2 (1), p. 5. ISSN 1463-4236

2000

Barbour, R. and Featherstone, V. (2000) ‘Acquiring qualitative skills for primary care research. Review and reflections on a three-stage workshop. Part 1: using interviews to generate data’ Family Practice , 17 (1), pp. 76-82. ISSN 0263-2136

Barbour, R. and Featherstone, V. (2000) ‘Acquiring qualitative skills for primary care research. Review and reflections on a three-stage workshop. Part 2: analysing interview data’ Family Practice , 17 (1), pp. 83-89. ISSN 0263-2136

1996

Featherstone, V (1996) ‘A feminist critique of family therapy’ Counselling Psychology Quarterly , 9 (1), pp. 15-23. ISSN 0951-5070

• (2008) Guest Lecture. Language patients use to describe seizures.
  Department of Neurology. Hull Royal Infirmary, Academic Meeting.
• Honorary Lecturer, University of Salford, 2012 - 2014.

I am interested in supervising psychology dissertations where the candidate is using qualitative methods. I am currently supervising a student undertaking an MSc in Social Work.

Teaching session on Motivational Interviewing for dental nurses in Manchester. June 2012.