Dr Mary Hickson
Current Role: please detail current role and date of appointment
I have been working as the Therapy Research and Education Lead for Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust for over 10 years. My role involves management and leadership for both education and research within Therapy Services at our Trust. This can include influencing and negotiating at a strategic level, both in the Trust and nationally, as well as commissioning training, supporting individuals with research and creating an environment where research can flourish and education is accessible.
I am also an Adjunct Professor with Imperial College London. This recognises my contributions to both research and education within the College. I lead a masters course (MRes Human Nutrition), teach medical undergraduates and support the Health Sciences Academy (a recent partnership between Brunel, Bucks New and Imperial).
Background:
My background is in dietetics, particularly in the field of nutrition and older people. I currently practice as a clinical dietitian, providing a service to our specialist familial hyperlipidaemia tertiary clinic at Hammersmith Hospital. I spent the first eight years of my career working as a clinical dietitian in hospitals and the community, covering a range of specialist areas in the UK and Australia. I joined my current employer in 1998 in order to manage a research project and work towards my PhD.
Clinical/academic interests:
My main clinical and academic interest is nutrition and ageing, but I am also interested in how dietitians work, effective dietary modification, and hospital food provision. I have also spent a large proportion of my career working to enhance the research capacity and career opportunities for my own and other allied health professions. I have supported 17 staff from the Trust to successfully apply for NIHR awards, I am on the Association of UK University Hospitals Clinical Academic Career working group, I am on the judging panel for the current NIHR ICA scheme, and I was actively involved in lobbying to include AHPs when the scheme was first proposed.
Research interests:
During my research career I have investigated ways to improve nutritional care on acute elderly medicine wards, studied nutritional interventions to combat sarcopenia, tested the efficacy of probiotics in preventing antibiotic associated diarrhoea, as well as other nutritional studies and validation work for a nutrition screening tool.
My publication record is more diverse reflecting the support I provide to individuals doing research. I have publications relating to medication harm, physical activity, laryngectomy and voice prostheses, critical care, and renal nutrition.
Motivations for mentoring:
In my unique role I was able to facilitate the collaboration for this current scheme – Mentorship for Health Research Training Fellows. I believe this scheme will be vital in ensuring the award holders are appropriately supported to attain what is expected of them; to become the clinical research leaders of the future. I remain a member of the managing committee and steering group for this scheme.
I have benefited from mentoring throughout my career but I have never had access to this kind of structured and managed programme. I believe mentoring can really change perspectives and help people move forward in their careers and that is what I hope this scheme can achieve for you.
My mentoring style:
I am a good listener and after having some mentees have discovered that I have a host of useful experience to draw upon. I expect you, the mentee, to lead our discussions, but I will question and challenge your assumptions and expectations. I hope to be able to steer you towards the expertise you may need and provide opportunities to expand your networks. I will try and make you think critically about your choices and help you utilise your current support networks effectively. By being your mentor I would like to help you find the confidence and drive to succeed in your endeavours.
Last three publications:
- M Hickson. Nutritional interventions in sarcopenia: a critical review. Proc Nutr Soc. 2015 (in press)
- Finnamore H, Whelan K, Hickson M, Shovlin CL. Top dietary iron sources in the UK. Br J Gen Pract. 2014; 64(April):172–172.
- Reynolds M, Hickson M, Jacklin A, Franklin BD. A descriptive exploratory study of how admissions caused by medication-related harm are documented within inpatients’ medical records. BMC Health Serv Res. 2014 Jan; 14(1):257.