Dr Vikki Park is Senior Lecturer in Patient Experience, Outcome and Healthcare Leadership. The role involves contributions to teaching, research, knowledge exchange, and enterprise in the Department of Allied Health Professions in the School of Health & Life Sciences.

As a core member of the leadership teaching team Vikki leads, delivers and evaluates leadership modules and programmes for health professionals undertaking a range of postgraduate leadership programmes. 

Background

Vikki is a registered adult nurse; her healthcare career started in 1999 and after working predominantly within critical care, in 2010 Vikki became a full-time educator and taught for a year in a Further Education College. She has worked in Higher Education since 2011 in four organisations: Northumbria University, University of Sunderland, Teesside University and NCG (College Based Higher Education). Vikki has experience with teaching, assessment, leadership, evaluation, research and strategy development across undergraduate, postgraduate and international nursing, healthcare, social work and advanced clinical practioner programmes. This experience extends to Further Education, Higher Education, College Based HE, Independent HE and the charitable sector. 

Vikki has an international reputation in the field of interprofessional education and collaborative practice (IPECP). She leads national and international research groups, is a trustee and board member of CAIPE, delivers keynotes, represents UK IPECP at the global confederation for IPECP (Interprofessional.Global) and on international panels, and has received 3 international awards for collaborative global impact in the field of IPECP. 

Qualifications

PhD., PG Dip., PG Cert., BSc (Hons), RN, RNT, SFHEA.

Prior to working in Higher Education, Vikki was awarded a BSc (Hons) in Nursing Studies, Post Graduate Certificate in Practice Development, a Post Graduate Diploma in Academic Practice Development and Professional Learning, gained status as a Fellow of the HEA, and became an NMC Registered Nurse Teacher. She was awarded her PhD in March 2021, and her thesis is entitled: 'Learning in Critical Care: A Focused Ethnography of Interprofessional Learning Culture'. Senior Fellow of Advance HE (SFHEA) was awarded in 2023.

Vikki is the recipient of three international collaborative awards recognising globally impactful contributions to the field of IPECP and she represents the UK at International IP.Global Symposia; following contributions to global priority setting, Vikki is continuing her international work through membership of several international roles. 

Vikki is the recipient of several award nominations for teaching excellence. These include 9 Student Led Teaching and Learning Awards from 2 HE institutions, and 2 nominations for Shine Award for innovation and collaboration.

Vikki’s research interests focus upon interprofessional education and collaborative practice (IPECP) with respect to interprofessional learning, workforce development, education and leadership. Vikki is interested in qualitative research methodologies, with expertise in ethnography.

National and International Roles
Vikki is aligned to several national and international IPECP organisations. Vikki was appointed as a National Board member of CAIPE (the Centre for the Advancement of Interprofessional Education) in July 2021 following member election, and has led the CAIPE Research Priority Group since 2022. Prior to this, Vikki was a CAIPE research working group member and IPE Standards working group member. Internationally, in December 2022, Vikki was elected to the Steering Committee as Co-Chair of the Communications group of IPR.Global (Interprofessional Research.Global) and is now a Lead of the Research Priority Taskforce. She is also a working group member of IP.Global Capacity Building, and the Communications and Marketing group which disseminates IPECP research and scholarly practice across global networks through online networking events.

Vikki is passionate about the principals of SoTL (Scholarship of Teaching and Learning). She is a member of EuroSOTL and the Special Interest Group Case Method in HE. Vikki has a level 7 qualification in SOTL and strives to apply the principles to enhance her teaching and learning expertise and scholarly practice. 

In addition to IPECP, principal areas of scholarly interest include global leadership, simulation based education, critical care nursing, communication and interpersonal skills, and workforce development.

Vikki is also interested in the use of creative writing in relation to health care experiences, reflection and practitioner development. She contributed to the publication of a regional anthology of poetry and has delivered regional and national workshops on this topic, as well as being awarded the BACCN 2016 National Poster Prize for a creative writing workshop evaluation.

As well as working with CAIPE, IPR.Global and IP.Global, Vikki has been appointed as a member of the advisory committee for INHWE (International Network for Health and Workforce Education) and is an international committee advisor for Süleyman Demirel University, Turkey. Vikki has previous experience as a Trustee of the British Association of Critical Care Nurses and was appointed as Treasurer for the BACCN Northern Regional Committee. 

Vikki is a peer reviewer for serval journa;s: Journal of Interprofessional Care, Frontiers and BMC Medical Education and was an adult critical care reviewer for the Nursing in Critical Care journal for 3 years (2020-2023).

To influence and guide the quality of IPE provision in HE, Vikki is an External Examiner for Glasgow Caledonian University for several interprofessional modules.

Based on her global reputation for IPECP Vikki has been invited as keynote to Turkey and South Africa, with international guest speaker and panellist invitations to Saint Louis University in Missouri, USA; the University of the Philippines Manila; and Acibadem Mehmet Ali Aydinar University, Turkey; nationally as keynote at Ulster University and St.Andrews University, Scotland, and regionally as keynote at the Teesside IPE Conference, North East Simulation Network Conference and the Newcastle College University Centre Research Symposium. Vikki has also hosted several international IPECP colleagues: Gumi University, South Korea; the University of New Mexico; St George's University, Grenada and Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, South Africa.

Vikki has experience with research and grant bids, and consultancy projects. In 2021, she successfully secured a consultancy role supporting Staffordshire University academics to integrate IPECP into their health and social care curriculum, and in 2024 secured a £50k consultancy project with a team from Northumbria University to design psychosocial nurse training for the Renal Operational Delivery Network, NENC.

In 2024 Vikki secured SEMP grant funding and undertook an educational initiative with ZHAW, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland.

More recently Vikki has led strategy development and this includes launching a UK University IPE Strategy, the Northern IPE Strategy, and successfully recruiting and leading an innovative IPE intern programme to co-create IPE provision with interprofessional students with competitive internal funding. 

Vikki has also contributed to several educationally funded projects including a bespoke simulation training programme for Thai healthcare professionals and 'upskill' training for healthcare professionals during the pandemic as part of an NHSE funded project to prepare staff for the transition in to critical care environments.