Dr Mervyn Conroy
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Merv teaches across a range of subjects relating to Medical Leadership, Healthcare Services Redesign and Ethics. With expertise in practice virtue ethics and phronesis (practical wisdom), Merv's scholarship has led to Principal Investigator (PI) roles on several collaborative research projects funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). In recognition of his contributions to research with the medical community, Merv has delivered programmes for the Royal Colleges and NHS England ‘Enhance’ programme to support practitioners in cultivating phronesis in ethical decision-making for patients and their communities. Merv also supervises PhD students on medical leadership and ethics related subjects.
Merv’s responsibilities include leading on course delivery, course management and course development in the area of Medical Leadership and Education. Further, to undertake research and knowledge transfer through scholarly activities.
He has published widely in Leadership, Management Development and Medical Ethics journals, mainly with a practice virtue ethics and phronesis perspective. Merv's monograph project, An Ethical Approach to Leading Change: An Alternative and Sustainable Application, was written with the help of NHS research funding. The hardback edition was published in 2010 and the paperback and e-version launched in 2020. An introduction to Merv’s recent collaborative, AHRC funded research can be viewed at Phronesis and the Medical Community, at Phronesis, Medical Leadership and Ethical Decision Making - YouTube and one of the seven film episodes that convey the findings at Medical Ethics Resources: Dilemma: Admit or Discharge? - YouTube. The film series and other resources offer a unique moral debating resource for medics and other healthcare professionals.
He is currently leading, with the support of the research team here, two further project proposals for funders he has worked with previously. If successful, they will advance knowledge and skills in the area of ethical decision-making for multidisciplinary teams operating across the integrated care landscape.
Merv’s HE work experience started in 1999 running leadership, management and team working elements for the International MBA at Lancaster University with 120 students from every continent. In parallel with this work, he was recruited as a hybrid manager in Psychological Services, for a Mental Health NHS Trust which included a caseload as a Psychotherapist and Counsellor. This led to leadership/OD projects and running stress management CPD programmes for regional senior managers.
This continued until 2007 when Merv was taken on by Thales Consulting and Engineering to lead their healthcare accounts in research, consultancy and executive education. In 2009, he was appointed as a Senior Fellow by University of Birmingham Health Services Management Centre and was responsible for design and delivery of PG leadership and OD modules. These include all modules for the NHS Leadership Academy’s Elizabeth Garret Anderson (EGA) Healthcare Leadership MSc and all modules for the HSMC’s open Leadership for Health Services Improvement (LHSI) MSc. More recently, as an Honorary, his undergraduate and postgraduate teaching has moved to Birmingham’s Medical and Dentistry School and Warwick’s Medical School teaching Ethical Decision Making from a practice virtue ethics perspective. In 2020, he transferred to Honorary status at Birmingham in order to set up a spin out research community interest company, The Phronesis Foundation, designing and delivering PG and CPD leadership and ethical decision-making programmes for NHS senior leaders and clinicians.
- 2007: Lancaster University Ph.D – An Ethical Dimension to Organisational Change: Virtue-to-Virtue Combat for the Moral High Ground of UK NHS Reform
- 1999: UCL PG Diploma in Counselling & Psychotherapy - NHS qualified psychological services practitioner: Supporting people through organisational and life changes
- 1995: Lancaster University PGCert in Management – Safety Critical AI Research Award and Technology/Knowledge Transfer Management
- My specialist area is the theoretical development and application of neo-Aristotelian virtue ethics and within that a focus on the phronesis virtue in clinical leadership decision making. My original methodology to study this topic has developed over the last ten years from a synthesised narrative approach (Conroy 2010) to include arts based film production as integral to the analysis and output creation (Conroy et al 2021). The arts innovation has proved particularly appealing to the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) which has funded six (three as Principal Investigator (PI) and three as Co-Investigator (Co-I)) of my interdisciplinary grant applications.
- BACP Member
- 2018-2019: AHRC award - PI role on Phronesis and the Medical Community: Impact and Engagement Follow Up
- 2018: AHRC Connected Communities Catalyst Fund – Co-I role on Making Qualitative, Creative Engagement Part of Everyday Practice in the Health and Care Sector: Who is our ‘community’?
- 2015-18: AHRC award - PI role on Phronesis and the Medical Community (PMC): researching practical wisdom and ethical decision making in medical leadership
- 2015-18: ESRC award - Co-I role on Leadership and Ethics research seminar series project
- 2012-13: AHRC award - Co-I role on ‘Street Drinking, New Media and Public Engagement’ to understand and address the issues of binge drinking using a blended face to face and webinar event
- 2011-12: AHRC award - Co-I role on Creating Cultural Citizenship: Linking Arts and Health to bring better engagement and outcomes for patients and their communities
- 2009-11: AHRC award - PI role on ‘Connected Health and Social Care Communities’ regional approach to integrated healthcare that takes an ethical approach to public and patient inclusion
- 2001-2007: NIHR award - PI role on ‘An Ethical Approach to Leading Large Scale Change in the NHS’
- COMET 2018-2024
Email: Email:Dr Mervyn Conroy