Rate My Professor Agnes Shiel

Professor Agnes Shiel is an Established Professor of Occupational Therapy in the School of Health Sciences at the University of Galway. She holds a PhD, an MSc in Rehabilitation Studies from the University of Southampton, and a DipCOT. Her career began as an Occupational Therapist and progressed to Senior Occupational Therapist with the Western Health Board in Ireland and at Dudley Health Authority in the West Midlands, where she also served as Deputy Head Occupational Therapist. After completing her MSc as a full-time student at the University of Southampton, she worked there as Research Fellow and Senior Research Fellow. She subsequently held positions as Career Development Fellow and Researcher at the Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit. Appointed Professor of Occupational Therapy at the University of Galway since 2003, she has made substantial contributions to occupational therapy education, research, and practice.

Professor Shiel's academic interests center on acquired brain injury in adults, acquired disorders of consciousness including coma, the vegetative state, and the minimally conscious state, evidence-based practice, neurorehabilitation, cognitive rehabilitation, and neuropsychological rehabilitation. She has authored or co-authored 127 research outputs, including 53 journal articles, 32 conference publications, 9 book chapters, and 24 other contributions, accumulating over 2,500 citations. Key publications include 'The Wessex Head Injury Matrix (WHIM) main scale: a preliminary report on a scale to assess and monitor patient recovery after severe head injury' (2000), 'The effects of increased rehabilitation therapy after brain injury: results of a prospective controlled trial' (2001), 'Difficulties in diagnosing the vegetative state' (2004), 'A feasibility study of the Redesigning Daily Occupations (ReDO™-10) programme in an Irish context' (2022, Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy), and 'Demonstrating the Cost Effectiveness of Individualised Occupational Therapy Interventions to Enable Transition from Institutional to Independent Living – A Longitudinal Case Study' (2024, Occupational Therapy in Mental Health). Her research aligns with UN Sustainable Development Goals 3 (Good Health and Well-being) and 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions). Professor Shiel supervises PhD students, accepts new PhD projects in her expertise areas, and fosters international collaborations.