Kay Currie is Professor of Nursing & Applied Healthcare Research in the Department of Nursing & Community Health, where she leads the staff & patient perspectives research programme in the ‘Safeguarding Health through Infection Prevention’ (SHIP) Research Group. She is also a member of the SHAIPI Consortium (the Scottish Healthcare Associated Infection Prevention Institute), leading work on patient perspectives of applied infection prevention. Kay is also Director of the Glasgow Caledonian University WHO Collaborating Centre for Nursing Education, Research & Practice Development. 

Kay has a special interest in improving healthcare quality, specifically person-centered care through effective professional practice.  Her current research and teaching focus is on understanding and responding to patient experience, staff behaviours, and organisational contexts in the areas of healthcare associated infection and antimicrobial resistance. Whilst specializing in qualitative research methods, grounded theory being a particular interest, she often leads mixed methods projects.

Recent work includes research related to staff and patient views on the acceptability of suspended visiting during norovirus outbreaks (TSV Noro Project); barriers and enablers to staff compliance with MRSA screening (AMR-BESH Project); public, patient and staff views on the acceptability of screening for CPE; patient experience of healthcare associated infection; behavioural insights into pet owner and veterinarian actions and attitudes related to antibiotic use in companion animals; barriers and enablers to antimicrobial stewardship in acute care hospitals (The BEAMS Project).

Current doctoral supervision includes a range of projects related to infection prevention, such as: nurse prescribing of antibiotics; the implementation of care bundles; patients’ experiences of antibiotic use; the acceptability of rapid diagnostic testing as a guide to antibiotic prescribing; the use of isolation in contemporary NHS settings; interventions to overcome barriers to antimicrobial stewardship.

Kay is also an Honorary Professor with NHS Lanarkshire, where she is a member of the Healthcare Quality Assurance and Improvement Committee. 

Research Interests: healthcare associated infection; infection prevention, antimicrobial resistance;antimicrobial stewardship; patient experience; staff perspectives; behavioural insights; Normalisation Process Theory