Professor Jane Coad is a Professor in Children and Family Nursing, Executive Director (ED) for the Centre for Innovative Research Across the Life-Course (CIRAL), Acting ED for Centre for Advancing Behavioural Science; theme lead for Children and Families Research (CFR) within the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Coventry University. Prof Coad has a strong background in both art and nursing and undertakes a number of surveys and projects. These include innovative e-technology survey and evaluations and qualitative art-based participatory research, including handling large data sets, with children, young people and families. User-led approaches include consultation, collaborative and user-led projects. Predominantly, research is focused on children and families that have long term, complex and palliative care needs, and settings have included acute, community and public health settings in the UK and internationally such as Ireland, USA and Sri Lanka.

Prof Coad was awarded a Royal College of Nursing Fellowship in 2013 for lifetime research and leads on a number of local, national and international groups holding substantive posts and was recently invited to the House of Commons to speak as part of a Teenage Cancer Trust briefing for the shadow secretary of state for health.

Inspiring my REF research is Children and Families Research (CFR), a research centre within the Faculty of HLS, initiated in 2011. It is the only one led by a Professor in Children and Family Nursing in the West Midlands. Aims include; 

• Supporting transformational research around children, young people and family complex care; health and wellbeing with UK/international impact, using respected methods and producing world class research

• Promoting cross-disciplinary and inter-professional research and learning with new and existing external regional, national and international collaborators 

• Building the evidence base and leadership to encourage health professionals in research and careers

Children and Family Health, Complex care, Palliative care, Life limiting illness, Young people, Transition, Arts based, Qualitative, Survey methods, e-technologies, Narrative methodology, IPA, Grounded theory, Appreciative inquiry, Framework analysis