Zoe is a PhD student in the Department of Psychological Medicine and her project examines exposure to violence for nurses across ethnic groups, using a mixed methods approach. The “Ethnicity and Violence Exposure for Nurses” (EVEN) study is supervised by Professor Stephani Hatch and Dr Geraldine Lee at King’s College London, and supported by Dr Habib Naqvi at NHS England.

The EVEN study partners with the NHS Race and Health Observatory (RHO) and builds on the Wellcome Trust funded Tackling Inequalities and Discrimination Experiences in health Services (TIDES) study, which investigates how discrimination experienced by both patients and healthcare practitioners may generate and perpetuate inequalities in health service use. Zoe was a Research Assistant on the TIDES study from 2017 to 2020 where she helped to design and conduct a quantitative survey involving over 900 healthcare practitioners across London NHS trusts, and conducted epidemiological analyses using electronic health records to identify inequalities in health service use.

Prior to joining the TIDES team, Zoe was a Research Assistant in the King’s Centre for Mental Health Research (KCMHR) and has a MSc in War & Psychiatry from King’s College London and a BSc in Psychology from University College London.

Research interests

The EVEN study is a collaborative PhD studentship, in partnership with NHS England Workforce Race Equality Standard and supported by the Economic and Social Research Council through the London Interdisciplinary Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership.

The EVEN study aims to understand the nature and impact of workplace violence on the mental and physical health of hospital-based and community nurses across ethnic groups, and the barriers to reporting these incidents, with implications for improving the recruitment of nursing students, work performance, and retention of qualified nurses.

EVEN involves three studies conducted from 2021 to 2024. Study 1 (2021-22) explores witnessing or experiencing violence across ethnic groups both in and outside the workplace in terms of context, type, frequency, severity and perpetrator, using semi-structured interviews with nurses and NHS ward managers.

Study 2 (2022-23) examines the impact of workplace violence on mental and physical health, job satisfaction, work performance, and intention to stay in the profession, and how this varies across ethnic groups, using a quantitative survey with TIDES Phase 1 participants and a booster sample.

Study 3 (2023-24) explores what procedures are in place for reporting violent incidents and what are the barriers and facilitators to reporting using semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of nursing academics, Royal College of Nursing (RCN) safety representatives and NHS ward managers, and a sub-sample of nurses who reported workplace violence in Study 2, as well as emergency department nurses, given they experience the highest rates of workplace violence among nurses.

Findings from the EVEN study will be disseminated through peer reviewed publications, conferences, engagement with service user groups and social media through the NHS England Workforce Race Equality Standard, the Royal College of Nursing London Inclusion Solution, the NIHR Mental Health Policy Research Unit and the Health Inequalities Research Network.

Research areas:

• Violence, trauma and mental health
• Ethnicity, race and mental health
• Occupation and mental health
• Social inequalities in health and health service use
• Interdisciplinary and mixed-methods research

Expertise and public engagement

As part of the Health Inequalities Research Network (HERON), Zoe is involved in running public engagement activities with the local community to facilitate a dialogue on health inequalities. She is the lead coordinator of the Research Methods in School Education (RISE) programme which aims to engage young people on the topic of health inequalities, deliver research methods training and inspire young people to think critically about local community health. Zoe has also worked with other HERON members to coordinate the HERON Conference 2018 on the theme of “Current and Future Directions in Health Equity Research and Action” and the South East London Photography (SELPh) group which is based on photo-voice; a participatory research method in which people are given a voice through using photography to communicate issues important to them and to effect change.

On World Mental Health Day 2019, Zoe launched HERON Origami at a Maudsley Charity event in south London. The origami workshop provided free supplies, tuition and resources on the Japanese art of paper folding which helps to reduce stress, improve concentration and support the practice of mindfulness. Following a successful initial workshop, additional workshops were held for mental health nurses at the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust and staff at King’s College London. For more details, please visit the HERON website.