Lesley Dibley is Professor of Qualitative Nursing Research at the University of Greenwich, London. She specialises in the philosophy and methodology of hermeneutic phenomenology and received her PhD in 2014 for a study of the experience of stigma in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Dual trained (RGN, RSCN), Lesley earned her ‘research stripes’ with Professor Christine Norton, at King’s College, London. Lesley’s research investigates patients’ experiences of living with chronic illness, and her work has contributed to understanding the complex experiences of patients with IBD and Multiple Sclerosis, around incontinence and stomas, and of marginalised groups’ access to gastrointestinal healthcare. Lesley’s active research includes:

• understanding the transition to living well with a stoma amongst people with IBD

• understanding the lifetime implications of spinal fusion surgery in people with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis

• an independent evaluation of a women’s group for older Nepalese women living in London, delivered by Age UK Bromley & Greenwich.

Prof Dibley is committed to facilitating research capacity and capability amongst specialist nurses and supporting their causes whenever possible. Her work with IBD Clinical Nurse Specialists has highlighted the challenges that they, like many other nursing groups in the NHS, face as a direct consequence of the complex, specialist work they do to benefit patients. Lesley has over 55 publications, including two books, and has delivered numerous local, national, and international conference presentations and workshops.