Dr Christopher Wagstaff BA, RMN (Dip), MSc, PGCertEd, PhD

Dr Christopher Wagstaff

School of Nursing and Midwifery
Associate Professor

Contact details

Address
University 麻豆精选
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Dr. Chris Wagstaff is an Associate Professor in Mental Health Nursing at the University 麻豆精选. As a Clinical Nurse Specialist in mental health, he brings valuable clinical experience to his academic role.

Chris is currently the Head of Global Student Mobility in the College of Medicine and Health. In this role Chris aims to enhance global learning opportunities for PG & UG students by establishing collaborative relationships with partner universities, expanding and optimising opportunities for incoming international students to the college and promoting virtual global mobility. 

Chris is the module leader for the Health & Social Care Enquiry module, where students from three different master’s programme complete a small scale research, audit or quality improvement project. 

With over 20 years of teaching experience, Chris now has close working relationships with both Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), Universitas Airlangga and the University of São Paulo (USP).

Chris regularly publishes qualitative and mixed-methods papers in reputable journals, contributing significantly to the field. His primary research interests include mental health, violence, and substance use.  He is an active member of the GRUPAD and Risk, Abuse, and Violence (RAV) research programmes, collaborating on international projects that aim to improve mental health outcomes globally.

Additionally, Chris is an active member of Mental Health Nurse Academics UK and the Chair of the Graduate Entry Nursing – International Network.

View Chris's ORCHID View Chris's Google Scholar profile  

Follow Chris on Bluesky @3genwaggy.bsky.social

Qualifications

  • 2011 - 2016 University 麻豆精选, Doctor of Philosophy

  • 2009 - 2011 University 麻豆精选:  PG Cert Ed

  • 2001 - 2003 University 麻豆精选:  Msc Health Science

  • 1992 - 1995 Birmingham & Solihull College of Nursing & Midwifery:  RMN/ DIP/ NMC PIN#: 92C0606E

  • 1987 - 1990 University 麻豆精选: Philosophy BA 2:2

Biography

Chris worked for the NHS as a mental health nurse for 14 years before joining the University 麻豆精选, he worked his way from nursing assistant to clinical team leader.

For 16 years Chris was the Field of Practice Lead for Mental Health. As the primary academic internally and externally for the field, the role entailed providing consistent leadership and direction to ensure the programme was designed and delivered to meet the needs of students and practice and included writing the mental health component for the 2007 NMC curriculum rewrite which subsequently largely remained unchanged in the 2013 rewrite due to its robustness.  An important part of the role was also that the students on the field had a good experience during their time on the course. 

Since 2005 Chris has undertaken different roles in the department, including BNurs admission tutor, Fitness to Practice lead, widening participation lead, first-year lead, as well as mental health field lead and MSc programme director.

From 2006 – 2020 Chris was responsible for the development and organization of the Collaborative Learning Initiative (CLI). The design principles and delivery of the initiative were cited as an example of good practice and informed the NICE Good Practice guidelines for Service User Involvement in teaching. Over the years about 780 students attended the initiative.

For three years from 2015 Chris was a joint developer on the ‘Dementia: Managing challenging behaviours’ for the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). At the time it had the most ‘click-through’ traffic of any MOOC in the history of University 麻豆精选.  

From it’s inception until June 2025 Chris was the Programme director for the MSc in Nursing, designing and modifying the admissions process, launching the new course during COVID in September 2020 and leading a major curriculum re-write in 2022.

As regards research, Chris’ PhD was an interpretative study focused on disengagement from mental health services. Presently, much of Chris’ research collaboration is with Prof Sandra Pillon at the University of São Paulo (USP).

Teaching

Postgraduate supervision

By the end of 2025, Chris will have seven PhD students, and two MRes students. 
He is, however, always interested in potential new PhD projects that fit his research interests.

Research

2009: Virtual Presentation - on CLI at the 4th International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, University of Athens, Greece

Chris’ research interests are usually around mental illness, violence and substance use.  His research is often qualitative or mixed methods.

 Current projects:

Primary and Original Studies Suicide prevention and postvention in the context of school: knowledge, practices, epidemiology and educational-care technologies. Funded by CNPQ

Evaluating substance use and depression in the Quilombola communities. Funded by CNPQ.

Other activities

  • 2021 Contributed to the Consultation on Triple Zero City Strategy Birmingham 2020-2030- identified and evidenced alcohol prevalence in the Punjabi Sikh Community that  required address.
  • 2017 onwards active member of Mental Health Nurse Academics UK (MHNAUK).
  • 2015 - 18:  Joint developer/ Contributor on the Dementia: Managing challenging behaviours MOOC. Available on Futurelearn.
  • 2013: Shortlisted for Nursing Times Nurse Lecturer of the year.
  • 2012:  Invited to submit to NICE Good Practice guidelines - {cited: 13-2-17}.
  • 2011 - Present  Fitness to Practice coordinator for nursing.
  • 2007-Present:  Over 20 national and international conferences.
  • 2006-2010: Development of a Self Harm training website (ILaSH).
  • 2006- 2007: Development of an On-Line Assessment workbook.
  • 2005-2007:  mental health lead in the rewriting of the Bnurs curriculum.
  • 2004/2005: involved in writing the NICE guidelines for the Treatment of Bi-Polar affective disorder.

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Ebenezer, B, Wagstaff, C & Jalal, Z 2025, '', Journal of Pharmaceutical and Allied Sciences, vol. 22, no. 5, pp. 4960-4972. <>

Molina, NPFM, Di Donato, G, Tirapelli, CR, Wagstaff, C, Pillon, SC & Miasso, AI 2025, '', Ciencia e Saude Coletiva.

Reis, JB, Ter莽as-Trettel, ACP, Galv茫o, ND, Espinosa, MM, Pegoraro, NPJ, Wagstaff, C & Pillon, SC 2025, '', Acta Sci Health Sci.

Ebenezer, B, Wagstaff, C & Jalal, Z 2025, '', Journal of Pharmaceutical and Allied Sciences, vol. 22, no. 5, pp. 4935-4948. <>

Akinlotan, O & Wagstaff, C 2025, '', Healthcare (Switzerland), vol. 13, no. 15, 1792.

Haig, S & Wagstaff, C 2024, '', Journal of Psychiatric Intensive Care.

dos SAntos, KC, Magalh茫es, LS, Caetano, KAA, Stacciarini, J-MR, Rezende, LP, Vilac, VDSC, Wagstaff, C, Pillon, SC & Teles, SAT 2024, '', International Journal of Transgender Health.

Foster, S, Priolli, N, Wagstaff, C, Adjei, R, Sekandi, P & Pillon, SC 2024, '', Journal of Psychosexual Health, vol. 6, no. 4, pp. 315-327.

Wagstaff, C 2024, '', Nursing Standard, vol. 39, no. 6, e12269.

Bertolo, M, Tirapelli, CR, Miasso, AI, Pegoraro, N, Zanetti, M, Wagstaff, C & Pillon, SC 2024, '', Health, vol. 16, no. 11, pp. 1130-1146.

Chapter

Kaur, H & Wagstaff, C 2024, . in J Siebert (ed.), Abuse in World Religions: Articulating the Problem: Rape Culture, Religion and the Bible. vol. 2, Routledge, New York.

Editorial

Wagstaff, C & Fernandes, MA 2024, '', Revista Enfermagem Atual In Derme , vol. 98, no. 2, e024342.

Review article

de Oliveira Costa, CM, Santos, SSN, Molina, NPFM, Pillon, SC, Wagstaff, C, Miasso, AI & Alves, VDM 2025, '', Journal of American College Health.

Deering, K, Wagstaff, C, Kyle, RG, Bermingham, I, Williams, J & Pawson, C 2025, '', International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, vol. 34, no. 4, e70104.

Masih, M, Wagstaff, C & Kaur-Aujla, H 2024, '', Frontiers in Global Women鈥檚 Health, vol. 5, 1365883.