Research Director for Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Professions

Co-Chair, St George’s Translational and Clinical Research Institute

ORCID ID: 0000-0002-4820-3291

Professor Jarman has a background in emergency care and was a Consultant Nurse in Emergency Care at St George’s Hospital in London from 2004, specifically focusing in practice in the emergency and major trauma care. She was the Clinical Director for the Major Trauma Centre at St George’s from 2012 – 2018, the only nurse to hold this level of appointment in the UK.

Heather holds a Doctorate from King’s College London exploring the effect of restructuring major trauma services on the work of emergency nurses. She holds a Visiting Chair at Kingston University, and is Reader in the Population Health Research Institute at St George’s, University of London.

Professor Jarman established, and is the lead for, the ED Clinical Research Group which is embedded within the Emergency Department. In 2018 she was awarded the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) ‘Emergency Nurse of the Year’ for her leadership and capacity building in emergency care research.

Research

The research portfolio of the ED Clinical Research Group led by Professor Jarman is diverse, reflecting the multi-professional clinical setting of emergency care. Heather has been lead or co-applicant on around £1.6m of successful grant applications.

Heather’s main area of research interest is the needs of older patients in the Emergency Department, with funding from the Burdett Trust to investigate frailty assessment in frail major trauma patients (The FRAILT study). This has led to other work on trauma pathways for older patients. She is also Chief Investigator for the EDCO studies (a group of studies into low level carbon monoxide exposure in emergency departments) with funding from the Carbon Monoxide Research Trust.

She is academic supervisor for clinicians undertaking the PGCert (Research) and MRes programme, and is clinical mentor to NIHR research fellows. Heather is an external PhD examiner.

Heather manages a large research delivery team and is an experienced principal investigator in both interventional and observational studies, including drug trials (CTIMPs). She is the South London Clinical Research Network lead for Trauma and Emergency Care and has led the set-up and delivery of over 30 research studies at St George’s.

Grants

The Carbon Monoxide Research Trust. The EDCO-M study: carbon monoxide alarm use in emergency department patients. Heather Jarman (Chief Investigator), and other consortium members. ISRCTN registration: 12562718 [link]

The Burdett Trust for Nursing. FRAIL-T: the frailty in major trauma study. Heather Jarman (Chief Investigator), Robert Crouch, Mark Baxter, Elaine Cole, Chao Wang. ISRCTN registration: 10671514 [link]

NIHR Health Services and Delivery Programme. Evaluating Mental Health Decision Units in acute care pathways (DECISION): A quasi-experimental and health economic evaluation. Steve Gillard (Chief Investigator) St George’s University of London, Jared Smith, Chloe Perkins, Kati Turner, David McDaid, Heather Jarman, Sonia Johnson. PROSPERO registration: CRD42019151043 [link]

The Gas Safety Trust. The ED-CO study: a prospective enhanced surveillance study of carboxyhaemoglobin (CO) levels in patients attending the Emergency Department with symptoms suggestive of CO exposure. Heather Jarman (Chief Investigator), and other consortium members. ISRCTN registration: 16329899 [link]

Testing a lay responder pathway to head injuries. Heather Jarman (co-investigator), Mary Halter (Chief Investigator),  and other consortium members. Funded by the British Red Cross.

Publications

link to publications page

Education

Heather achieved a Master’s in Education in 2005. She is a Course Director and Steering Committee member for the European Trauma Course. She teaches regularly on major trauma care and research methods.

Other appointed roles

Co-Chair, National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Emergency Care Incubator

NIHR Specialty Lead for Trauma and Emergency Care (South London Clinical Research Network)

Co-Chair, National Major Trauma Nursing and Rehabilitation Groups joint research sub-group