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Dr Chris Knifton

Job: Associate Professor - Neurocognitive and Neurodevelopmental Education

Faculty: Health and Life Sciences

School/department: School of Nursing and Midwifery

Research group(s): SSRI - Social Sciences Research Institute

Address: Edith Murphy Building, EM3.24黑料网, The Gateway, Leicester, LE1 9BH.

T: +44 (0)116 2013 855

E: cknifton@dmu.ac.uk

W: /nursingandmidwifery

 

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Personal profile

Dr Chris Knifiton is Associate Professor supported topic themes around dementia, childhood dementia, learning disability, neurodiversity, andragogy, and teaching and learning. He is a Registered learning disability nurse with the NMC, a sregistered social worker with soicial work England, and an Admiral nurse with Dementia UK.

Within the university, Chris hoilds roles on Equality prompts, Equality Impact Assessments and helping both staff and student become more neurodiverse aware. He also talks with staff and studenst about dementia support and support for the carer in his Admiral nurse role and is currently reseraching the experiences of HEI studenst who are carers when studying at university.

He teaches on apprentice paramedic courses, the paramedic science course, nursing (all fields of practice), Professional nurse Advocates, ACPs  and social work.   His teaching aligns to his topic themes as key areas of interest and reserach.

He is a regular speaker at conferences both locally, nationally and internationally on dementia, neurodiversity and autism. Chris is very open about his own autism diagnosis and its impact, talking widely abour neurodiverse-abiities and strengths of being neurodivergent.

Chris's doctoral thesis was on the sociology of dementia.    

 

Research group affiliations

Social Science Research Institute- led by Prof Raghu Raghaven

Publications and outputs


  • dc.title: Role of admiral nurses in supporting people with learning disabilities and dementia dc.contributor.author: Knifton, Chris; Lyons, Victoria; Oliver, Emily; Molesworth, Sue dc.description.abstract: The average age of people with learning disabilities is increasing, meaning that the number of people with learning disabilities and dementia is also rising. The care trajectory for people with learning disabilities and dementia is complex, starting with challenges in obtaining an appropriate diagnosis through to receiving appropriate and high-quality end of life care. The charity Dementia UK recognises the issues that families experience when someone in their family has a learning disability and dementia, and has developed a model of care in which Admiral Nurses, who are specialist dementia nurses, work in learning disability services. This article explores the role of the Admiral Nurse in learning disability services and examines the areas in which these specialist nurses provide tailored support. The article also outlines the expected outcomes of the service provided by these nurses. dc.description: Published with Admiral nurses at Dementia UK

  • dc.title: Law and accountability for PNA practice dc.contributor.author: Knifton, Chris; Hart, T. dc.description.abstract: This article is the fifth in a series of discussion papers that outline how the professional nurse advocate role can strengthen their restorative clinical supervision practices. This article focuses more specifically on their legal responsibilities. It discusses the importance of professional nurse advocates having a clear and robust legal understanding so that their practice is safe and better informed. A special emphasis is placed on restorative clinical supervision confidentiality and record keeping. What aspects of the law a professional nurse advocate should consider is discussed and relevant guidance they should follow is highlighted.

  • dc.title: Equity, diversity and inclusion: principles and prompts for PNA practice dc.contributor.author: Knifton, Chris dc.description.abstract: This article, the sixth and final in a series of discussion papers, outlines how the relatively new professional nurse advocate role can be strengthened. It focuses on the equity, diversity and inclusive aspects of the role and includes the use of prompts that have been developed and can help to guide quality review and monitoring. A four-sphere model for equity is proposed to thematically discuss these prompts in greater detail, as part of regular quality review discussions and service development.

  • dc.title: A Socio-History and Genealogy of Dementia Thought and Conceptualisation in Western Society dc.contributor.author: Knifton, Chris dc.description.abstract: Background: Debates concerning the conceptualisation of dementia in Western society, including its framing as a specific type of disorder (such as neuro-psychiatric, part of the natural aging process, cognitive, and so on) are important in understanding how it has come to be problematized. The manner by which this has been framed has implications not only for the perceived disciplinary ownership of dementia, but also for the lived experience of people diagnosed with dementia, their families, and the care professionals and nurse educators supporting them or their carers. The work of Michel Foucault is useful in setting this debate within a critical socio-historical context. Aims: The problematization and conceptualisation of dementia in Western society, including its socio-history, is re-examined, drawing on an approach influenced by Foucault鈥檚 history of problematization. Here, through exploring alternative conceptualisations, using a Foucauldian critical history, this study reviews society鈥檚 understanding of what it is to be a person with dementia. The aim of this study then is to challenge dominant neuro-psychiatric conceptualisations of dementia in Western society and to examine and explore how alternative conceptualisations have existed through our history. This requires taking a critical review of the historical evidence of the different ways of seeing, speaking about, or understanding dementia and its subsequent problematization. Methods: An in-depth analysis of 500 documents, spanning 4,000 years, covering early Egyptian, Greek and Roman periods, through to the twenty-first century, are examined. These were sourced through academic databases and archival sources as well as snowball sampling from reference lists and bibliographies. Based on carefully considered inclusion and exclusion criteria, including personal reflexivity and consideration for researcher bias, relevant documents were compiled into an Archive representing a socio-history of dementia thought. Framework analysis was then used to examine the manner in which dementia is conceptualised and problematized in different texts or fields of discourse taken from the Archive, and emerging analytical themes were then interpreted using Foucauldian analysis. Results: Six differing conceptualisations or problematizations of dementia were found (as a natural consequence of ageing, a mental or neuro-psychiatric disorder, a bio-medical disorder, a neuro-cognitive disorder, a disability; and, a terminal illness). Conclusion: What it is to be a person with dementia is located within a particular conceptual framework, with ideas or considered truths about the condition reliant upon historica