Kathy French, RN, BSc(Hons), PGCE/RNT, MPhil, PhD, HonFFSRH
For well over four decades, Dr Kathy French’s name has become synonymous with that of a tireless champion, advancing the expertise of clinical and educational nursing practice for the improvement of sexual and reproductive client healthcare.
A testimony to Kathy French’s inspirational work and leadership is easy to find. Go to any conference on sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and invariably one meets nursing and medical practitioners who will say how she changed the direction of their lives! So many professionals work in SRH services because of her inspirational role modelling; so many have improved clinical practice because of her advocacy. She has led on some Royal College of Nursing Guidelines for Nursing Staff; she was first non-medical Clinical Director of Brook UK and lead on the development of clinical and educational standards for nurses, for former NHS London Sexual Health Programme (2012) and the pan-London NHS Patient Group Directions (on methods of contraception).
Kathy’s leadership roles as a Professional Nurse Advisor with the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) saw her championing sexual and reproductive health, including abortion care, across the UK and Northern Ireland. She is fearless in the face of entrenched stigma, for example, in her defence of women experiencing abortions. Her leadership for the development of Patient Group Directions (PGDs) is improving the lives of women accessing contraception and she was one of only two leading nursing voices at the UK Government’s Independent Advisory Group on Sexual Health (2001-2010). She continues to play a significant role in the current All Party Parliamentary Group on SRH.
During her years at the RCN Kathy improved client care especially via her authorship of various national guidelines, e.g. on long acting contraception, SRH competencies, across a range of nurse educational initiatives, and through the publication of her book, Sexual Health – Essential clinical Skills for Nurses (2009).
Kathy’s innovations are too numerous to list here, so three examples are presented:
1) breaking down multi-professional barriers against talking about abortion care;
2) promoting education for practice that proactively develops services via the professional role of the nurse;
3) publically addressing the stigmas of abortion and getting it on professional clinical, managerial and educational agendas.
She was also innovative on the subject matter of her doctoral theses (PhD 2009), when she gave voice to redress “The invisibility of young black heterosexual men in sexual health discourses”, especially on their experiences of fatherhood (City University London).
Kathy is recognised by multi-professional peers in the way she is frequently sought after to be a judge for various national awards, receiving one herself, from a medical Faculty, when she became an Honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Health, in 2013.
Dr French’s positive impact on safety is also linked with patient advocacy, supported by her MPhil studies (2006) in medical law and ethics. She sits on a London Ethics Committee and is an expert witness, usually at the request of senior medical practitioners, for legal firms dealing in cases relating to sexual health. Kathy’s sustained commitment to the nursing profession, especially the SRH specialities, spans the late 1960s to date, and shows no sign of abating. She has made clear break-throughs in her professional life, as witnessed by a strengthening of the clinical, educational and managerial roles of nurses across all aspects of SRH. In 2008 she, as an expert nurse, gave evidence to a House of Commons Select Committee on abortion.
Some of her other notable achievements: authoring a range of articles in nursing and medical journals; co-authoring Sexual Health Skills (formerly RCN, now University of Greenwich), the UK’s widest accessed sexual health course for nurses, and presenting and chairing at a large number of conferences in the UK and abroad (including Bangkok, Copenhagen and Murcia). She has also promoted sexual and reproductive healthcare across a range of media including television.
Dr French has taken a lead on advancing nursing career roles with commensurate graduate and post graduate education, for NHS London Sexual Health Programme, gaining respect from clinicians and educationalists alike. At one and the same time, Dr Kathy French, HonFFSRH, manages being a nurse, educationalist, academic, extensive charity worker and genuine multi-professional leader whilst helping advance contraceptive rights for women and men, enhancing and promoting the professional role and skills of nurses.
To my dearest friend Kathy – aka “Matron” – ad moltos annos!
(To many more years!)
Is there a Doctor in the house? 
David Prof Evans , your words are far too generous..kathy French