NET2010 Conference
Tuesday 7 - Thursday 9 September 2010
Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK
Keynote speakers and Workshop information
Please scroll down this page for information on the conference workshops; the post-conference working towards publication workshop and the Humanising healthcare workshop.
Keynote speakers
We are delighted to welcome two internationally recognised leading speakers:
10.15-11.15, Tuesday 7 September 2010
Sue Bernhauser, Dean of Human and Health Sciences, University of Huddersfield and Chair of the UK Council of Deans
Strategic directions for healthcare education: The impact of the Council of Deans
Sue has a history of educational innovation and has played a significant role in many of the major reviews of nurse education within the last 20 years. In her capacity as Chair of Council of Deans, she works closely with the Department of Health on professional and workforce issues, she is a member of the Next Stage Review Nursing and Midwifery Advisory Committee, the Higher Education National Strategic Engagement Committee (HENSE) and is on the Universities UK Health and Social Policy Committee. She is also a member of the Royal College of Nursing and the Higher Education Academy.
She is the UK
representative, and founder member, on the Global Alliance of Nurse Education
and Scholarship (GANES) - an International Group exploring how nurse educators
might work together to improve the health of individuals worldwide. Sue was on
the Prime Minister’s Commission looking into the future of nursing and
midwifery. Her research interests include leadership, student assessment and
simulation in health programmes, from a strategic perspective.
12.00-13.00, Wednesday 8 September 2010
Professor Janice Sigsworth, Director of Nursing, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, London, UK
Living life in the fast lane: The highs and lows of an Academic Health Science Centre
As Director of Nursing, Academic Health
Science Centre, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, Janice's key priorities will
be to prepare the nursing and midwifery workforce to meet the challenges that
they will face in the next 10 years, placing care and compassion at the centre
of nursing and midwifery care to improving patients’ experience and building strong
integrated clinical academic careers for nurses and midwives.
She had formerly been Deputy Chief Nurse (England) at the
Department of Health. In this role she worked extensively on the UK-wide work
to modernise nursing careers and the nursing contribution to the Department of
Health, Next Stage Review. Previous positions included Executive Director of
Nursing and Workforce for the North Central London Strategic Health Authority
and Executive Director of Commissioning for the North Central London Workforce
Development Confederation. Janice has and a wealth of experience in the acute
sector having worked as the Executive Director of Nursing at Barnet and Chase
Farm Hospitals NHS Trust and Deputy Nurse Director at the Royal Free Hospital.
With a clinical background in respiratory medicine and long term conditions,
she has a BSc in Nursing, MSc in Health Service Management, and has an honorary
professorial appointment with Middlesex University.
Professor Sigsworth is a member of the Nursing Times
Advisory Board, a special Trustee of the Foundation of Nursing Studies. She is
also a member of the Chief Nursing Officers National Nursing and Midwifery
Advisory Board, and co-chair of the National Implementation Board for Clinical
Academic Careers for Nurses, Midwives and AHPs. Most recently, Janice has been
appointed as Chair of the NHS London Workforce Advisory Forum, and as a
commissioner on the PMs Commission on the future of Nursing and Midwifery.
Workshops and seminar
We have a stimulating and innovative programme of workshops planned for this year.
Get Connected: Exploiting cyberspace
Led by Professor Carol Haigh, Professor of Nursing, Manchester Metropolitan University
It is difficult to imagine any single development, within the last decade, that has impacted upon nurse education to the extent that the surge of digital learning technology has. Podcasting, social networking sites and all of the opportunities offered by the second generation of web design that allow for information sharing - known as web 2.0 - have expanded the horizons of the nurse lecturer beyond the classroom to the whole of the global education community.
Nurse lecturers are becoming more aware of the opportunities that web 2.0 offers and are slowly moving into the world of cyber-teaching. Where students once were confined to the university campus, they are now at liberty to wander through cyber-space at will. Social networking sites, discussion fora and online collaboration sites are being freely utilised by a majority of the student body, however educationalists have been slower to exploit cyber-space.
The aim of this workshop is to introduce educationalists to social networking, collaborative work sites, file sharing sites and many of the other useful tools that the internet can offer. So, if you don't know your Facebook from your Bebo and you think that tweeting is for the birds - then this is the workshop for you!
20.00-21.30, Tuesday 7 September 2010
Dissent and dissensus: making a difference in the corporate university
Led by Professor Gary Rolfe, Professor of Nursing, Swansea University, UK
Many academics in nursing and other health care disciplines are beginning to notice some fundamental changes in what is expected of them as lecturers and researchers. The university has for some years been repositioning itself as a corporate business with students as its customers and degrees as its product. Our role as educators is being challenged by the demands of the organisation to increase student satisfaction survey scores and student retention rates, and our role as scholars and researchers is being shaped by the need to secure the 'right' research grants and to publish in the 'right' journals.
It could be argued that the university has little choice but to become more corporate if it is to survive financially as an institution, and whilst many university students might be happy to be administered through their degree courses to a successful outcome with as little fuss as possible, I believe that this simply will not do in nursing and healthcare education. The university is being increasingly perceived as losing touch with the needs and demands of practice, and we must somehow balance the tension between the demands of the university to maximise 'academic production' one hand, and the requirements of the profession for skilled and thoughtful practitioners on the other.
A colleague recently complained to me that whenever he tried to raise issues about the current state of nurse education, he was told that 'this is not the place to do so'. After numerous attempts, he has concluded that there is no place in the corporate university to address these fundamental issues for nurse education. The purpose of this seminar is to begin to identify and build a place where dissenting voices can be heard and from which academics might once more exert an influence and make a difference to the practice of nursing and healthcare.
08.30–10.00, Wednesday 9 September 2010
Professional development writing
Led by Professor Roger Watson, Professor of Nursing, University of Sheffield, UK and
Editor of the Journal of Clinical Nursing
This session will focus on responding to editorial comments, explain how editors come to decisions, and provide practical advice on how to deal with: minor changes, major changes and rejection.
This session will focus on responding to editorial comments, explain how editors come to decisions, and provide practical advice on how to deal with: minor changes, major changes and rejection.
The session will be interactive with plenty of opportunity for participants' questions.
Post-conference workshop - Working towards publication
Thursday 9 September and Friday 10 September 2010 Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge
A practical workshop led by Martin Johnson and Karen Holland, editors of leading journals Nurse Education Today and Nurse Education in Practice and Ann Shuttleworth, freelance editor.
We are delighted to announce that this workshop is being sponsored by Elsevier.

Would you like expert support and dedicated time to work on a paper that you want to
have published? We know it is difficult to find time in the busy academic year, so the
aim of this post-conference workshop is to provide practical support for people wishing
to publish a scholarly paper in a peer-reviewed journal.
The workshop will run immediately after NET2010 and will be available only to NET participants. It will start after lunch on Thursday 9 September and finish at lunchtime on Friday 10 September.
Places will be allocated on a
first-come, first-served basis. Click here to register for this workshop.
New!
Humanising healthcare: Cultivating holistic intelligennce and authentic presence through reflective digital storiesA special workshop for NET 2010 delegates: Friday 10 September – Sunday 12 September 2010
Facilitated by Pip Hardy and Tony Sumner, Patient Voices Programme
We are delighted to announce a specially designed workshop run by the award winning Patient Voices Programme. The workshop, Humanising healthcare: Cultivating holistic intelligence and authentic presence through reflective digital stories, will give you a unique opportunity to convey your own reflective story in a powerful way.
The workshop will be held directly after the NET conference in the village of Landbeach, just a few miles from Cambridge. The Patient Voices Programme are generously offering a 15% reduction on the usual fee to NET delegates.
To download the flyer about the workshop Click here
To contact the patient Voices Programme direct, email: pip@pilgrimprojects.co.ukIf you have any questions regarding any aspects of this conference please speak to Anna
at Jill Rogers Associates.