New Doctorates at DCU
23 July 2003

Imelda Coyne, from the School of Nursing, and Ruth Mattimoe, from the Business School, are to be congratulated on their recent doctorates. Both Imelda and Ruth have set professional firsts in their doctorates. Imelda is the first children's nurse in Ireland to be awarded a doctorate and Ruth is the first member of DCUBS to be awarded an Accounting and Finance doctorate from the Manchester School of Accounting and Finance.

Imelda, who's nursing career began in 1982, gained her clinical experience working in childrens' hospital. Prior to joining DCU in 1999 Imelda worked in King's College University of London. She is currently the Programme Director for the BSc undergraduate degree in nursing, in Dublin City University.

Imelda's passionate interest and years of experience in childcare directed her thesis research which focused on parent participation in the hospitalised child's care and used the grounded theory method. The title of her PhD is "A grounded theory of disrupted lives: Children, parents and nurses in the children's ward".

Imelda intends to continue researching the care provided for children in hospital and particularly children's involvement in decision-making in their health care. In liaison with other paediatric nursing colleagues Imelda has just set up the Irish Association for Paediatric Nurses in Ireland (IAPN).

Ruth Mattimoe gained her PhD from the Manchester School of Accounting and Finance which received the UK's highest rating in the recent Research Assessment Exercise. The doctorate, which was supervised by Professor Bob Scapens, Director of the Centre for Inter-Disciplinary Research in Accounting and Finance, looked at the pricing procedures for room rate pricing in the Irish hotel industry and was based on in-depth case studies. It was awarded a competitive Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (UK) grant.

Ruth, who is a non-business graduate, trained as a chartered accountant and also spent some time in industry before entering academic life.

Ruth has published work on the enterprise sector and the art of doing qualitative research. She is also actively pursuing further research in pricing in hotels and services, in public sector research and in the learning styles of executives. She has also acted as an Examiner for the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland.