About
Debbie graduated from West Middlesex school of Physiotherapy in 1986, and worked clinically as a respiratory physiotherapist and later undertook her Master’s degree in musculoskeletal physiotherapy at University College London in 1996. It was during this experience that she developed an interest in clinical reasoning as a concept that is fundamental to the development of expertise. Debbie developed her knowledge further in this area whilst studying for her Educational Doctorate by undertaking a study that explored the clinical reasoning of respiratory physiotherapists using a simulated environment to observe staff as they assessed and treated a simulated patient in a high dependency unit. From this study, she developed a new conceptual model of clinical reasoning for cardiorespiratory physiotherapy. In recognition of this work Debbie was awarded a Global Initiative award from the University in 2017. She continues to lead, in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Sydney, on how clinical reasoning is developed and assessed.
Debbie was awarded the Vice Chancellors Teaching award in 2018 for the development of a simulated module, ‘Preparing for on-call’, for level 6 students and for postgraduate staff at two local NHS Trusts. She was awarded the Deans award for Education in 2020 for her development of 16 respiratory modules as e-learning for health (elf-H) platform on behalf of Health Education England in response to the COVID 19 pandemic.
Research
Research groups
Research interests
- Debbie was awarded a Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) Research fund to conduct her study into the clincial reasoning of cardiorespiartroy physiotherapists as part of her Educational Doctorate.
- Debbie continued to develop her knowledge about simulation and has been awarded several educational grants to develop and evaluate simulation-based educational programmes for both the undergraduate and post-graduates to prepare to undertake emergency on-call respiratory duties. The outcome from this work showed that the simulation programme helped improve Physiotherapists confidence following attending the programme and to feel less anxious about being on call. This is work was presented at the national Chartered Society of Physiotherapy CSP conference 2017 and the World congress of Physiotherapy in South Africa in 2017.
- Debbie has worked on educational projects wthin the Research and Assesment Practice (RAP) group within the University and developed new assesment rubrics for several modules as part of this project. She presented the findings of this project at the 8th International Clinical Skills Conference in Prato 2018.
Current research
Debbie currently leads the development of simulation within the school for AHP staff. In 2021 Debbie was awarded funds from Health Education England to lead an interdisciplinary team of AHP’s to develop, implement and evaluate a new simulation programme ‘the Clinical Placement Enhancement Project (CPEP)’ to better prepare students for clinical placement. Debbie led the design of the mixed methods evaluation of the CPEP project and is currently writing up the study with colleagues from AHP and University of Sydney.
This year Debbie is working as part of an interprofessional school team and has been awarded further funding from HEE to design, implement and evaluate a new 5-week simulated paediatric respiratory placement for nursing and MSc Physiotherapy students.
Research projects
Completed projects
Publications
Teaching
Debbie is the lead for cardiorespiratory in the Physiotherapy team and delivers all the cardiorespiratory teaching and assessment for the BSc and MSc programmes.
Debbie works alongside her Programme lead to advise on curriculum design and supports the team with the development of their modules for revalidation.
Biography
BACKGROUND
Dr Debbie Thackray is a Principal Teaching Fellow in Physiotherapy at the University of Southampton and is the Stream lead for teaching cardiorespiratory for both the BSc and MSc programmes.
Debbie is committed to supporting and developing therapists for the future, using simulation-based learning and believes it can lead to improved patient outcomes and has previously represented AHP professions as a Simulation development officer for the Association of Simulated Practice in Healthcare (ASPiH).