Dr David J Hunter qualified as a Registered Nurse in 1999. His initial post was in the Emergency Department of Blackpool Victoria Hospital, where he was quickly promoted from D to E to F grade. In 2003, David returned to Scotland and worked as an E grade staff nurse in the Emergency Department, Royal Alexandra Hospital, Paisley. In 2004, David completed his BSc(Hons) degree and in 2005, he was promoted to F Grade following completion of the Emergency Nurse Practitioner course. David became a Practice Education Facilitator in 2009, completing his MSc in 2010. In June 2011 he became a Lecturer in Adult Nursing at UWS. He completed his Professional Doctorate for Health, Social Care and Nursing professionals in 2017 with a thesis which looked at student nurses experience of compassionate care within the Emergency Department. David worked at UWS until 2018 and then spent 3 years as a Lecturer in Nursing & Healthcare at the University of Glasgow, before returning to UWS as a Senior Lecturer in Adult Nursing and Healthcare in February 2022.

David has published journal articles in Emergency Nurse, Nursing Standard, the Journal of Research in Nursing and the British Journal of Nursing. He has also been a co-author of a book chapter in Essentials of Nursing Practice, edited by Delves-Yates (2015), and subsequent editions. He has also presented at multiple conferences.

David is mainly involved with the BSc (Hons) Adult Nursing programme although he also teaches into other programmes. He is a supervisor of MSc and MRes students undertaking their dissertations and PhD students undertaking their thesis.

David's main research interested to date have been in relation to the student experience, particularly in clinical practice. He considers himself to be, predominately, a qualitative researcher. David is also interested in exploring LGBTQ+ issues.

David's most recent research was around the experiences of LGBT+ individuals exercising with a peer group. The findings of this study were published in the British Journal of Nursing. He is currently planning his next research project, as well as supervising students actively engaged in research studies. 

On completion of his ProfD, David is interested in continuing to research areas of the student nurse experience. He is also keen in research regarding LGBT+ issues.