As an associate professor in emergency medicine at Aarhus University, Health, I conduct research in patient safety related to emergency departments and the acute care chain. In addition, I am director of the Research Center for Emergency Medicine. I have a PhD degree in medicine, a master degree in health science and a clinical background as an emergency and intensive care nurse. My current roles include leading research, supervision of master and PhD students and teaching in patient safety.
My research focus is patient safety. For years medication safety was my focal point of research contributing to, e.g., development of an algorithms to detect patients at high risk for medication errors (MERIS). In the last decade my research has shifted towards safety in emergency departments examining clinicians role in improving patient safety and experience. The research topics encompasses, e.g., situational awareness, preventable admissions, organizational changes and missed nursing care
I am the manager of an elective course in patient safety (5 ETCS) for master students at Public Health, Aarhus University. The majority of the students have a professional background in health care. Hence, using a mixture of lecturing, group discussions and assignments, my goal is to increase the students awareness of their role as gate keepers for adverse events in clinical practise through evidence- based knowledge and tools to prevent, assess and analyse adverse events.
I collaborate with researchers from Karolinska Institute (Sweden), Deakin University, Sydney University (Australia), and University College Dublin (Ireland) on evidence-based emergency nursing. I also lead a project on resilient hospitals, learning from COVID-19, with researchers from BSS, Aarhus University, and LUISS and Pescara Universities (Italy). Finally, I have worked with researchers at Brigham & Women's Hospital & Harvard Medical School (USA) on patient safety & patient experience.
My primary area of responsibility is to be the driving force of research development and progression in the Research Center for Emergency Medicine. Moreover, I am co-director of the interdisciplinary research network Design-EM, which combines clinical and organizational research in emergency departments, which is an interdisciplinary network between Business and Social Sciences and the Department of Clinical Medicine, AU. Here I am leading an international project focusing on resilient and safe hospitals, lessons learnt from COVID-19 in Denmark and Italy.