RCN Executive Director and Health Minister meet nursing students

Janet Davies, Executive Director of Nursing at the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and Professor Ann Keen, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Health, met nursing students at Teesside University.

Ms Davies and Professor Keen were shown our facilities in the School of Health & Social Care by the School’s Dean, Professor Paul Keane, before meeting current nursing students.

Ms Davies spoke to students about the opportunities and challenges facing new entrants to the nursing profession, and Professor Keen outlined her views on the future of the nursing profession. The speeches were followed by a question and answer session with students. Professor Keane said: 'I am delighted that Janet Davies and Professor Keen came to our School of Health & Social Care which delivers excellent and innovative nursing programmes, but more importantly the quality of our graduates is commended on a regular basis by the Strategic Health Authority, NHS and Primary Care Trusts. It gave us an opportunity to share with them, on how nursing can be further enhanced from both an education and clinical perspective as well as discussing the proposal of moving towards an all graduate profession.' Health Minister Ann Keen MP said: 'I was absolutely thrilled to be come to Teesside. My husband Alan, who’s also an MP, for Feltham and Heston, is from Middlesbrough originally and I rang him on my mobile as soon as I saw the Transporter Bridge! I was a nurse for 28 years and felt so proud and excited when I qualified, but also absolutely terrified. Today’s nurse training is very different to the one I received in the 1970s and I hope today’s dialogue with the student nurses gave them an insight into what’s happening in the profession.

'I very much enjoyed speaking to the students to discuss how the nursing profession might develop during their careers. One of the important preparations of being a nurse is where you are educated and having toured Teesside University’s School of Health & Social Care I can see that its facilities are at the heart of those preparations.'

Teesside University - a byword for nursing excellence Janet Davies said: 'Teesside University has become quite a byword for nursing excellence and has a really good reputation. It was a great pleasure to visit one of the North’s leading universities for nursing education. Teesside has been consistently rated as either “outstanding” or “good” across a broad range of measures by the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s quality assurance review. The School of Health & Social Care is one of the jewels in the crown of Teesside University.

'I hope my talk with the nursing students confirmed to them that there are phenomenal opportunities in the future once they qualified. I have recently spoken at a nursing conference in South Africa and it was clear there that nursing education in the UK is seen as the top of the world.'

Factfile Professor Ann Keen MP is Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Health Services at the Department of Health. Her career in the National Health Service spanned 25 years. She trained as a Registered nurse at Ashford General Hospital and won prizes as Nurse of the Year and Children's Nurse of the Year. From 1989-93, she was Head of the Faculty of Advanced Nursing at Queen Charlotte's College in Hammersmith (now part of Thames Valley University).

She has served as the General Secretary of the Community and District Nursing Association (CDNA) and is Honorary Professor of Nursing at Thames Valley University as well as a Fellow of the Queens Nursing Institute.

Janet Davies became Executive Director of Nursing, Royal College of Nursing in September 2005 and has the strategic lead for nursing and services to members.

She represents the RCN at the National Social Partnership Forum, working with the Department of Health and NHS Employers on issues of policy and employment. She also leads on various advisory groups and forums including Care Quality Commission, National Clinical Guidance, Transforming Community Services, Accreditation and Quality, Ward Sisters, Open University Advisory Group and Academy of Medical Royal Colleges. Within the college she chairs the Health and Social Care Policy group and the Future Nurse Future Workforce group as well as various internal strategic boards.

Her area of work covers professional nursing, policy, employment relations, international and learning and development.

Janet started her nursing career in Manchester, and gained experience in acute, mental health and community settings. She later moved into director of nursing roles, where she obtained extensive experience in leading and developing the nursing profession. She also pioneered good partnership working with other health care organisations, as well as social services, the police, the fire service and the wider community.

In her previous role prior to joining RCN, as Chief Executive of Mersey Regional Ambulance Service NHS Trust, Janet was instrumental in overseeing an extensive programme of change and development.

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