Keynote speakers

We are delighted to welcome Professor Melanie Jasper as one of our keynote speakers for NET2013.

Professor Melanie Jasper, PhD, MSc, BNurs, BA, RN, RM, RHV, NDNcert, PGCEA, Professor of Nursing and Head of the College of Human and Health Sciences, Swansea University, Swansea, UK
 

Healthcare professional education: a call to focus on impact
It has long been assumed that improving access to education and raising the educational level of healthcare practitioners will have a direct impact on the quality and standards of care delivered to patients, and have a resultant impact on improving patient outcomes. Yet, a multiplicity of recent reports detailing instances of poor care, negligence and neglect within the British National Health Service and care homes, suggest that despite improved education for all healthcare practitioners, including doctors, wholesale failures in care delivery are continuing to happen, and, indeed, are increasing. Similar issues are known to exist across the world, despite differing political and socio-economic contexts.

Whilst improving the quality of care is not the only purpose of educating practitioners, this begs the question ‘What is the impact of education on clinical practice and the development of individual professional responsibility?’

Melanie graduated from the University of Manchester in 1977. She practised as a health visitor and midwife until becoming nurse educator at the University of Portsmouth in 1990. This was just as nurse education was beginning to move into higher education. She completed her Masters in Nursing at the Royal College of Nursing in 1994, and then went on to develop her understanding of reflective writing strategies in nursing education for her doctorate, awarded in 1999. In 2003 she joined Canterbury Christ Church University as a professor and head of a multidisciplinary department of health and social welfare studies, before moving to Swansea University in Wales as Head of School in 2007. In mid-2009 she was asked by the University to integrate the School of Human Sciences with Health Sciences to form a ‘super-School’ from 1 January 2010. The College of Human and Health Sciences is now the largest in the University, having around 350 staff and 4500 students.

In 2002 she was appointed Editor of the Journal of Nursing Management in 2002 here she has worked with the editorial board to grow the Journal from six issues of 64 pages per year, to eight issues of 136 pages. In 2009 she was appointed, by the Minister of Health and Social Services for Wales, to sit as an Independent Member of the Hywel Dda Local Health Board which is the controlling board for one of the seven health care providers in Wales, covering the three counties of Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion. She completed a ten month secondment to the Office of the Chief Nurse of the Welsh Government in November 2012 leading the development of the professionalism strand of the Free to Lead; Free to Care post-implementation project for empowering ward managers.

Melanie is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Ilorin, Nigeria and has collaborative research links with colleagues in South Africa, Norway, Finland and Italy.

Research interests relate particularly to reflective practice, reflective writing, portfolio and professional development, and on leadership – all of which have resulted in books and publications.

If you have any questions regarding any aspects of this conference please speak to Anna at Jill Rogers Associates.