ABOUT / ACADEMIC PROFILE
Research as a commitment to rehabilitation
I am a Coordinating Professor at the School of Health of Bragança (ESSa), Polytechnic University of Bragança, Portugal, and an integrated researcher at LiveWell – Research Center for Active Living and Wellbeing. I hold a PhD in Nursing, am a specialist in Rehabilitation Nursing, and obtained the Portuguese academic title of Agregado in Nursing Sciences in November 2026.
My academic work brings together teaching, clinical research and conceptual inquiry, with physical exercise in healthcare settings and its relationship with functioning and everyday life at its core.
Where my research began
Research involving people with chronic kidney disease, particularly those receiving haemodialysis, has been central to my work since my doctoral studies. I have investigated exercise-based interventions and their physiological and functional outcomes, with particular interest in integrating rehabilitation strategies into routine care.
This work continues through projects such as RespDialysis, which focuses on intradialytic inspiratory muscle training. Experimental research and rigorous outcome assessment remain essential parts of my research programme.
The questions that guide my work today
Improvements in strength, exercise tolerance or functional capacity matter. Yet they do not fully explain what those improvements mean to the person: which opportunities become possible again, which choices are regained, and how participation in everyday life changes.
This relationship between measurable outcomes and lived meaning informs my growing interest in the conceptual, ethical and philosophical foundations of Rehabilitation Nursing. Through qualitative inquiry and theoretical reflection, I explore the connections between functioning, autonomy, recognition and Bem Viver (living well). This is an evolving research agenda, not a claim to an already established theory.
Teaching, supervision and the scientific community
Teaching and research supervision are integral to my work. In higher education, I seek to connect scientific reasoning with the problems of clinical practice, emphasising methodological rigour, critical thinking and the translation of evidence into informed decisions.
I also contribute to scientific publishing, collaborative research and the development of Rehabilitation Nursing. I see these activities as ways of strengthening knowledge production and its circulation within academic and professional communities.
Research identifier: ORCID 0000-0001-8583-0406. · Ciência Vitae · Scopus · Web of Science
The contribution I seek to make
I am interested in a Rehabilitation Nursing discipline that generates robust evidence about its interventions while keeping the individual person in view. My research agenda seeks to connect clinical outcomes with agency and the human meaning of care.
Language: Português · English
