Professor Alison Steven

Professor

School: Healthcare and Nursing Sciences

Alison Steven is Professor of Research in Nursing and Health Professions Education at Northumbria University, Visiting Professor at the University of Genoa Italy and Faculty member of the Italian Inter-university Research Centre on Nursing Ethics.

She completed her PhD (Discourse analysis of clinical skills education) in 2002 at Newcastle University. Prior to joining Northumbria University in 2008 Alison worked in the Faculty of Medical Sciences and in the Postgraduate Institute for Medicine and Dentistry at Newcastle university.

Her research focuses on workforce development and wellbeing for the enhancement of safety and quality in professional practice through a focus on:

Health professions education, &
The embedding of skills, knowledge, and innovations in practice.

She uses a range of theoretical frameworks, qualitative and mixed methods as appropriate to work spanning from development and implementation work, through to exploration and evaluation.

Prof Steven has undertaken research across a spectrum of settings and published a range of academic articles, book chapters and monographs.

She led the EU co-funded SLIPPs project (2016-2019) see: https://research.northumbria.ac.uk/slipps/ which resulted in the development of the SLIPPs Learning Event Recording Tool (SLERT) which has been translated into multiple languages and used across 8 countries. Prof Steven also developed the concept of ‘Emotional safety for learning’ which emerged from a large UK Patient safety education study (2006-2009). The concept then evolved across a number of subsequent research projects.

Prof Steven is Co-applicant and Northumbria lead for the Workforce Voices Partnership for workforce sustainability in under-served areas (2025-2030). Funded by the National Institute for Health Research. https://workforcevoices.org/

Her portfolio includes research on Patient safety education, Work based/experiential learning, Workforce wellbeing and fatigue, Education for new roles and practices, Mentoring, Knowledge translation and implementation, practice and workforce development.

Campus Address

CLC West
Room B126

Email Alison

Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

Professor Steven's research focuses on workforce development and wellbeing for the enhancement of safety and quality in professional practice through a focus on:

• Health professions education, &

• The embedding of skills, knowledge, and innovations in practice.

She has particular expertise in qualitative methodologies but uses a range of theoretical frameworks, qualitative and mixed methods as appropriate to work spanning from development and implementation work, through to exploration and evaluation.

Prof Steven has undertaken research across a spectrum of settings and published a range of academic articles, book chapters and monographs, including developing work on ‘emotional safety for learning’.

Her portfolio includes research on: education for new roles and practices, inter-professional education, work based learning, mentoring, knowledge translation, practice and workforce development, continuing professional development, co-design and implementation of fatigue risk management strategies, implementation of enhanced care for older people, early warning scores, hydration apps in care homes.

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Fatigue: For safe patients we need safe nurses, Steven, A., Redfern, N. 1 Sep 2025, In: Journal of Advanced Nursing
Development of an international tool for students to record and reflect on patient safety learning experiences, Steven, A., Pearson, P., Turunen, H., Myhre, K., Sasso, L., Vizcaya-Moreno, M., Pérez-Cañaveras, R., Sara-aho, A., Bagnasco, A., Aleo, G., Patterson, L., Larkin, V., Zanini, M., Porras, J., Khakurel, J., Azimirad, M., Ringstad, Ø., Johnsen, L., Haatainen, K., Wilson, G., Rossi, S., Morey, S., Tella, S. May 2022, In: Nurse Educator
Learning to keep patients safe: Emotional safety for learning and complexity in the nursing workforce, Allen, H., Magnusson, C., Steven, A. 17 Dec 2019, Routledge International Handbook of Nurse Education, Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY, Taylor & Francis
Strain and Serenity: Exploring the Interplay of Stress, Burnout, and Well-being Among Healthcare Professionals, Cakirpaloglu, S., Cakirpaloglu, P., Skopal, O., Kvapilová, B., Schovánková, T., Vévodová, Š., Greaves, J., Steven, A. 25 Jun 2024, In: Frontiers in Psychology
Using Normalization Process Theory as a Practical Tool Across the Life Course of a Qualitative Research Project, McNaughton, R., Steven, A., Shucksmith, J. 1 Jan 2020, In: Qualitative Health Research
Shared learning from national to international contexts: A Research and Innovation Collaboration to Enhance Education for Patient Safety, Steven, A., Tella, S., Turunen, H., Vizcaya-Moreno , M., Pérez-Cañaveras , R., Porras, J., Bagnasco, A., Sasso, L., Myhre, K., Sara-aho, A., Ringstad, Ø., Pearson, P. Jun 2019, In: Journal of Research in Nursing

Current and Recent Projects

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Fatigue in the healthcare workforce : a staff and patient safety issue, Steven, A. (Principal Investigator), RIS Internal Funding, 01/11/23 - 31/10/24, £12,451.00

Professional Activity

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Examination: EdD External examiner, Strathclyde University : 'The Perceptions and Experiences of Midcareer Professionals' 2020
Examination: PhD External Examiner, University of Aberdeen: 'Improving Patient Safety Culture in a Medical Care Setting in Kuwait: A Mixed Methods Study' 2020
Oral presentation: RCN International Conference: Sharing learning from practice to improve patient safety (SLIPPs): gathering student accounts of practice learning experiences about patient safety 2019
Invited talk: ASME, AGM: How can theory help us? Exploring Normalization Process Theory (NPT) as a tool for implementing new ideas in practice and education 2019
Examination: EdD External Examiner, University of Strathclyde:“Speak slowly, I don’t understand”. Communication and cultural competence in the ERASMUS+ experience 2019

PGR Supervision

Ceri Sutherland Fatigue: a phenomenological exploration in NHS healthcare workers Start Date: 01/10/2020
James Wade Change of Title: A social constructionist approach to understanding why registered adult nurses allocate student nurses and Nursing Associates to work with Health Care Assistants whilst undertaking learning and assessment in clinical practice? Start Date: 07/11/2017
Oluwakemi Adeboye Exploring Care Homes as Learning Environments for Pre-registration Nursing Students: A Qualitative Study of Staff and stakeholder Perspectives Start Date: 01/10/2022