Debra Barker has over 24 yrs experience within midwifery, having embarked upon a career in midwifery in 1998. Debra was previously employed by the James Cook University Hospital, a large consultant led maternity unit and the Friarage Birthing Centre in the North of England. While employed at the James Cook University Hospital Debra held various posts including the positions of labour ward team leader, lead midwife for obstetric critical care and contact supervisor of midwife for the Trust. Trained and educated within service improvement and project management, Debra is able to lead multidisciplinary teams on education, service improvements, audit and health projects where the highest standards are routinely demanded.
Debra is currently employed as a Senior Midwifery Lecturer at the School of Health and Life Science, Teesside University having taken up the position in January 2017. Debra is an academic tutor specialising in physiology, anatomy and pathophysiology during pregnancy, birth and the puerperium. In 2018 her role expanded to include supervision of research studies including maternal obesity in the black African population, effectiveness of kangaroo care in low-birth-weight infants and the FLIPE study (fluoridation/iodine and it correlation to bone development and low IQ in children) and Cervical Cancer prevention Strategies among female health care workers in Nigeria
Debra’s career highlights include: led a large multidisciplinary steering group on the implementation of vertical integrated care pathways based on NICE guidance including: hypertension in pregnancy, sepsis and chronic obstructive airway disease. Debra successfully co-ordinated multidisciplinary teams across two sites in the collation of auditable data for internal and external quality assurance and specialist advisor to the CQC development of a coalition between HEI and regional/national Trusts and external partners in the development of midwifery education in the areas of maternal medicine and enhanced maternal care.
Debra continues to practice as a registered midwife within a local Trust as a midwife with an honorary contract and is an active volunteer with external organisations embedding the MGDs and SGDs in low to middle resource countries, through the provision of education, training and service evaluation.
