Sarah Penney

Sarah Penney serves as Lecturer in Nursing at Ulster University within the School of Nursing and Paramedic Science, Faculty of Life & Health Sciences at the Magee Campus in Derry~Londonderry. Her academic work focuses on leadership development within long-term care settings through the My Home Life Leadership Support Programme across Northern Ireland.

Her research expertise centers on long-term care leadership, person-centered care implementation, and quality improvement in care home environments. Using mixed-methods approaches including exploratory factor analysis and thematic analysis of semistructured interviews, she evaluates how leadership development impacts resident engagement, care quality metrics, and managerial decision-making processes.

Recent publications demonstrate strong trends in leadership program evaluation (2024-2025), with emphasis on quantitative assessment of quality metrics and qualitative exploration of stakeholder perspectives. Her work increasingly addresses post-pandemic recovery in care homes, focusing on meaningful resident engagement and sustainable leadership practices.

• Distinguished Collaborative Education Excellence Fellowship Award (2020)
• Multiple Department of Health Northern Ireland research grants (2015-2026)
• International recognition through Lund University collaboration

Dr. Penney actively supervises research through large-scale implementation projects, securing continuous funding for the My Home Life programme across Northern Ireland's care home sector. Her team collaborates with Department of Health officials, care home managers, and international researchers to develop evidence-based leadership frameworks that improve resident outcomes. Current work includes expanding the programme's sixth year implementation while evaluating long-term sustainability of leadership improvements in care home environments.