Department of Psychology: academic staff

Information related to the Bright Ideas Community Engaged Research Scheme available here:

Community Engaged Research Funding Scheme -- Supplementary Information on COPE Galway Research Needs

DR. PADRAIG MACNEELA

Office Rm. 3023, New Engineering Building
Telephone 353 91 495121
E-mail padraig.macneela

Dr. Padraig MacNeela BA, PhD

Pádraig has been a lecturer at the Department of Psychology since 2004, having served previously as Assistant Head of School and Director of Research at the School of Nursing, DCU. His teaching interests currently include psychology applied to nursing and qualitative research methods. At undergraduate level to the undergraduate degree programmes in psychology, general nursing, mental health nursing and midwifery. At postgraduate level he contributes to the programmes in clinical psychology and midwifery.

Research Interests

Pádraig’s research interests include clinical judgement and decision making, health services and nursing research, and volunteering. Pádraig’s key research areas are clinical judgement and decision making, volunteering, health services and nursing research. He has extensive experience of successfully managing research projects. He was one of four grant holders on the first national research programme in nursing, which was focused on nursing decision making (€1 million funding from HRB, 2002-2007). His interest in volunteering and civic engagement is reflected in a PhD project supervised by Pádraig and funded by the Community Knowledge Initiative.

As senior researcher on the HRB programme and through other projects he has experience of methodologies including interviews (focus groups, critical incident, think aloud and semi-structured interviews), development and evaluation of psychometric and clinimetric instruments, panel surveys, Delphi studies of consensus building, analysis of clinical documentation, clinical case simulation and judgement analysis.

Pádraig is a reviewer for organizations and journals including the European Science Foundation, the Belgian Ministry for Health, Psychology & Health, Voluntas, and the International Journal of Nursing Studies. He is a member of the University Societies Committee and the Alcohol Policy Review Group at NUI Galway.

Publications

Recent Articles & Book Chapters

• Conway, T., & MacNeela, P. (online first). A young person’s game: Immersion and distancing in bar work. Psychology & Health. DOI: 10.1080/08870446.2011.637560.
• MacNeela, P., Scott, P.A., Treacy, M., Hyde, A., & O’Mahony, R. (online first). A risk to himself: Attitudes toward psychiatric patients and choice of psychosocial strategies among nurses in medical-surgical units. Research in Nursing & Health. DOI: 10.1002/nur.21466.
• MacNeela, P., & Bredin, O. (2011). Keeping your balance: Freedom and regulation in female university students’ drinking practices. Journal of Health Psychology, 16, 284-293.
• MacNeela, P., Clinton, G., Place, C., Scott, A., Treacy, P., Hyde, A., & Dowd, H. (2010). A think aloud study of psychosocial care in mental health nursing. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 66, 1297-1307.
• MacNeela, P., Gibbons, A., McGuire, B., & Murphy, A. (2010). “We need to get you focused”: General practitioners’ representations of chronic low back pain patients. Qualitative Health Research, 20, 977-986.
• MacNeela, P., Morris, R., Scott, A., Treacy, M.P., & Hyde, A. (2010). Seen as core: A Delphi consensus study of essential elements of mental health nursing care in Ireland. Archives of Psychiatric Nursing, 24, 339-348.
• MacNeela, P., Scott, A., Treacy, P., & Hyde, A. (2010). In the know: Cognitive and social factors in mental health nursing assessment. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 19, 1298-1306.
• Morris, R., MacNeela, P., Scott, A., Treacy, P., Hyde, A., Matthews, A., Morrison, T., & Byrne, A. (2010). The Irish minimum data set for mental health: A valid and reliable tool for the collection of standardised nursing data. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 19, 359-367.
• MacNeela, P. (2008). The give and take of volunteering: Motives, benefits and personal connections among Irish volunteers. Voluntas, 19, 125-139.
• Morris, R., MacNeela, P., Scott, P.A., Treacy, M.P., & Hyde, A. (2008). Ambiguities and conflicting results: The limitations of the kappa statistic in establishing the interrater reliability of the Irish Nursing Minimum Data Set for mental health: A discussion paper. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 45, 645-647.
• MacNeela, P., Scott, P.A., Treacy, M.P., & Hyde, A. (2007). Lost in translation or the true text: Mental health representations of psychology. Qualitative Health Research, 17, 4, 501-509.
• Morris, R., MacNeela, P., Scott, P.A., Treacy, M.P., & Hyde, A. (2007). Reconsidering the conceptualization of nursing workload: literature review. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 57, 463-471.
• MacNeela, P., Scott, P.A., Treacy, P., & Hyde, A. (2006). Nursing Minimum Data Sets: A conceptual analysis and review. Nursing Inquiry, 13, 44-51.
• Butler, M.M., Treacy, M.P., Scott, P.A., Hyde, A., MacNeela, P., Irving, K., Byrne, A., Drennan, J., & Morris, R. (2006). Towards a nursing minimum dataset for Ireland: making Irish nursing visible. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 55, 3, 364- 375.
• Henry, P., MacNeela, P., Clinton, G., Scott, A., Treacy, P., Butler, M. et al. (2006). Developing a data dictionary for the Irish Nursing Minimum Data Set. Studies in Health Technology & Informatics, 122, 510-513.
• Hyde, A., Scott, P.A., Treacy, M.P., MacNeela, P., Irving, K., Hanrahan, M., & Butler, M. (2006). Social regulation, medicalisation and the nurse’s role: insights from an analysis of nursing documentation. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 43, 6, 735-744.
• Irving, K., Treacy, M.M., Scott, P.A., Hyde, A., MacNeela, P., Butler, M., Drennan, J., & Byrne, A. (2006). Discursive practices in the documentation of patient assessments. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 53, 151-159.
• MacNeela, P. (2005). Managing and being managed: The experience of paid staff and volunteers in health and social care voluntary groups. Journal of Volunteer Administration, 23, 11-15.
• Hyde, A., Treacy, M.P., Scott, P.A., Butler, M., Drennan, J., Byrne, A., MacNeela, P., & Hanrahan, M. (2005). Modes of rationality in nursing documentation: Biology, biography and marginal ’voice of nursing’. Nursing Inquiry, 12, 66-77.

Reports

• Scott, P.A., Treacy, M.P., MacNeela, P., Hyde, A., Morris, R., Drennan, J. et al. (2006). Report on the Delphi study of Irish nurses to articulate the core elements of nursing care in Ireland. Dublin: School of Nursing, DCU, and School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Systems, UCD.
• MacNeela, P. (2004). Individuals and organisations: An exploration of the volunteering process in health and social groups: Final report to the Third Sector Research Programme, Royal Irish Academy. Dublin: School of Nursing, DCU.
• MacNeela, P. (1999). Homelessness in Galway. Galway: Galway Simon Community.
• Kenna, P., & MacNeela, P. (2004). Housing and related needs of refugees and asylum seekers. Dublin: Vincentian Refugee Centre.
• Moore, G., McCarthy, P., MacNeela, P., MacGabhann, L., Philbin, M., & Proudfoot, D. (2004). A review of harm reduction approaches in Ireland and evidence from the international literature. Dublin: National Advisory Committee on Drugs.
• MacGabhannn, L., Scheele, A., Gallagher, P., MacNeela, P., Moore, G., Dunne, T., & Philbin, M. (2004). The management of dual diagnosis in mental health and addiction services in Ireland. Dublin: National Advisory Committee on Drugs.

Conferences

Selected Presentations

• 6th European Conference of Acendio, Amsterdam, April 2007: The validation of the Irish Nursing Minimum Data Set for general and mental health nursing in Ireland. Co-presenter, with other members of DCU / UCD research team.
• International Nursing Research Conference, Dundee, May 2007: Establishing the inter rater reliability and the construct validity of the Irish Nursing Minimum Data Set for Mental Health Nursing. Co-presenter, with other members of DCU / UCD research team.
• 10th International Philosophy of Nursing Conference, Dublin, September 2006 (invited speaker): Person and place: the meaning of assessment in mental health nursing.
• 9th International Congress on Nursing Informatics, Seoul, June 2006: Developing a data dictionary for the Irish Nursing Minimum Dataset. Co-presenter, with other members of DCU / UCD research team.
• 26th Annual Meeting of the Society for Judgement and Decision Making, Toronto, November 2005: Mental health nursing assessment: Process and context. Presenter, with other members of DCU / UCD collaborative research team (poster).
• 27th Annual Meeting of the Society for Medical Decision Making, San Francisco, October 2005: The judgement and decision making performance in practice tool: Idiographic assessment to support critical reflection on practice. Presenter, with other members of DCU / UCD collaborative research team (poster).
• Sigma Theta Thau International Nursing Conference, Hawaii, July 2005: Consensus building on the work of mental health nurses in Ireland. Co-presenter, with other members of DCU / UCD collaborative research team.
• International Congress of Nurses, Taipei, Taiwan, May 2005: Proposing a new model of nursing workload. Co-presenter, with other members of DCU / UCD collaborative research team.
• 5th European Conference of ACENDIO, Bled, Slovenia, April 2005: Talking psychologically: Mental health nurses’ use of psychology in describing problems, interventions and outcomes. Presenter, with other members of DCU / UCD collaborative research team.
• 8th Nursing Research Conference, Seville, November 2004: Mental health nurses’ contribution to patient care in Ireland. Co-presenter, with other members of DCU / UCD research team.
• 12th Biennial Conference of the Workgroup of European Nurse Researchers, Lisbon, October, 2004: Patient phenomena, nursing interventions and patient outcomes in mental health nursing: Findings of a Delphi survey. Presenter, with input from other members of DCU / UCD research team.

Research Funding

Principal Investigator

• Motivation and Beliefs among People Experiencing Chronic Low Back Pain, funded by the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences, €96,950, 2009-2010.
• The antecedents, experience and consequences of volunteering, funded by the Third Sector Research Programme, Royal Irish Academy, €35,000, 2001-2002.
• Benefits and barriers to involvement: Understanding and assessing the personal outcomes of volunteering, funded by the Third Sector Research Programme, Royal Irish Academy, €42,783, 2005-2006.
• Chronic low back pain: A judgement analysis of GPs’ clinical judgements and decisions, funded by the Health Research Board and Health Services Executive (Western Region), €102,000, 2006-2008.

Grant Holder

• HRB Research Programme grant holder: Nursing decision making: An integrated programme of research, funded by the Health Research Board, €1,000,000, 2002-2007.
• Services for people with dual diagnosis of mental health difficulties and substance abuse, funded by the National Advisory Committee on Drugs, €55,000, 2002-2003.
• Harm reduction measures for injecting drug users, funded by the National Advisory Committee on Drugs, €12,000, 2002.

Selected Professional Development Grants

• National Council for the Professional Development of Nursing and Midwifery (€93,000): To develop elearning and mixed mode delivery of postgraduate modules (project leader), 2003.
• National Council for the Professional Development of Nursing and Midwifery (€65,000): Enhancement of educational opportunities for nurses working with people with intellectual disability (project team member), 2003.
• North Eastern Health Board Regional Cancer Steering Group grant (€55,000) to develop MSc programme in Cancer Prevention (project leader), 2003.
• ACCORD Relationship Counselling grant (€50,000) to develop MSc programme in Counselling and Psychotherapy (project leader), 2003.
• Irish Cancer Society grant (€207,500) for project A continuous development framework for professionals and volunteers working with people affected by cancer (project leader), 2004.

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