Queen’s Nurse Award

I am truly honoured to have achieved the Queen’s Nurse Award, of the Queen’s Nursing Institute, 20 October 2022.

I started work on the 7,000 word reflective portfolio as far back as Easter Bank Holiday time, then worked at it, weekend after weekend, until formal submission in July. The award is for community and primary care nurses, with a “continuing commitment to improving standards of care in the community and to learning and leadership.” I have taught community and primary care nurses, across so many fields of practice, for three decades, and especially in the last few years, in research methods and for Masters in Health Care Practice, but I have never nursed clinically in the community. So I wrote to the QNI to ask if I was eligible to apply. Given that I teach nurses to achieve these aspirations of the QNI, and that universities are ‘in the community’ then yes, I was given a green flag to proceed!

Grateful thanks to my four referees: my Head of School, Professor Karen Cleaver, my clinical / professional ‘guru’, Dr Matthew Grundy-Bowers, FRCN, Consultant Nurse and Visiting Professor, University of Greenwich, and (as an educationalist) two students: Dr Michael Fanner (my former doctoral supervisee) and Amie Stocks, MA HCP.

My evidence

In the section: Other relevant experience

Details of any other activities either within or outside work that you feel demonstrate the attributes of a QN e.g. voluntary work, running a project. (The words in bold indicate the requirements from the QNI application form).

There are a number of key examples I can provide as evidence of my leadership, innovation and best practice in order to improve care for people, their families and the communities they serve which help me to act as an inspiring role model to peers and professional colleagues.

In a personal Zoom meeting (03 April 2022), Honorary Doctor Ruth Oshikanlu, MBE, QN, FRCN says of me “you are growing the next generation of community nurses, and have been for a number of years!” Ruth’s kind comments are just the latest I can provide, demonstrating the required high profile and the respect of their peers, who are willing to advocate on behalf of the Institute.’ Over the years I have known a number of great (community) nurses and midwives, including a number of the FQNIs. Some of these people I know personally; some I have shared working opportunities with or have met professionally / occasionally, and some are friends or professional colleagues through the great medium of Twitter.

Ruth Oshikanlu interviewed me for her truly amazing global series, “Nurses and Midwives Talk” in 2020, and again, on being a ‘multipotentialite’, for the Phi Mu (Sigma Nursing) Chapter conference, under the category of inspirational nurse leader. Ruth and I have subsequently co-authored an article together, to inspire further generations of nurses and midwives, around the whole notion of being entrepreneurial “multipotentialites” in the care / education we deliver to our clients, and – in my case – generations of students from 1990 to the present time.    

I wish to highlight 5 further activities as crucial evidence:

Firstly, my voluntary pro bono / (out of work-time) collaboration on the largest report written to date, by the Higher Education Policy Institute, the 2021 Student relationships, sex and sexual health survey.

The University of Greenwich’s former Vice Chancellor, an advisor to HEPI, Prof David Maguire, contacted me and asked if I would give some advice on a national survey being conducted by HEPI. The Policy Officer tasked with leading the project and the primary author of the report was Michael Natzler. I offered to do a lot more than simply review the questionnaire (which, I suggested needed a major re-think and re-write), but I got involved in the entirety of the project: from data analysis, support, and expert commentary / advice to co-authorship. The Report is of crucial importance not only for universities across the UK, or nurses working with them / studying at them, but for School Nurses and all other young people’s nurses and teenage pregnancy midwives, too. The HEPI report commented on the impact of school-based Sex and Relationship Education (as was called) on young people at universities today (at the time of the national survey). The Report highlights many areas of SRE – now re-named RSE – continues to let many young people down, as they transition to adulthood and life-long citizenship. The message is therefore of crucial importance for all nurses and midwives working with young people on matters sexual, such as School Nurses; Teenage Pregnancy (Prevention) Midwives / services; Family Partnership Nurses and so many others, besides. I highlighted this report in my 2021 RCN School Nurses’ Conference keynote presentation.

Second: Impact through publications: Over more than two decades, I have written a number of publications, especially with a focus on aspects and fields of practice across community health care (CV). Two publications I wish to highlight here are my forthcoming ‘Sexual Health is Public Health’ chapter in a Sage textbook [now published], Fundamentals of Public Health (editor, Amanda Holland). This work builds on earlier chapters, articles and conference presentations I have delivered over a number of years, not least the 2015 Public Health England / Department of Health: Personalised Care and Population Health Conference.

Then, in 2018, I was asked by the Editor of Nursing Standard to author a CPD article on HIV client care. I agreed to do this, with a small amount of input from post graduate student (his first time to write for publication). Current approaches to HIV prevention, treatment and care has become rather a popular article, and in 2021-22 I was asked to wholly update the work, for RCNi Publications to transform it into one of their new e-learning resources [now published].

The full list of my publications on my CV WordPress site and Researchgate, show about 95% joint authorship works are with students of mine, as I endeavour to mentor them into publishing.

Third: I am frequently invited to be the keynote (or a keynote) speaker at various conferences. Videos from some of these are shown on my Sharing Learning Outside the Classroom WordPress website. Over the years, community focused conferences have include (but not limited to) RCN Travel Nurses; Primary Care; Mental Health Research; School Nurses; Public Health; Department of Health; All Party Parliamentary Group on Sexual and Reproductive Health, and the Berkhamsted St Francis Hospice Conference (“Breaking Taboos: God, Sex, Death and Dying”). I have also spoken on interprofessional educational opportunities at medical organisations, such as the RCGP, the Institute for Psychosexual Medicine (twice) and the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Health. Internationally relevant conferences include the International School Nursing Conference (2015); on Sexuality and Relationship Education to primary care and teaching professionals in Malta; and on 2 sessions at the 2015 Sexology Denmark Conference; all by personal invitation.

Fourth: Over the last few years, our University has purchased an Adobe Creative Cloud licence, for staff and students. I have created dozens of learning resources in Adobe Spark (now called Express), and, as I mention elsewhere in this statement, I have developed a number of pages underpinning the pedangragogies of e-learning, including designing Spark and Adobe PremierRush (video editing) resources for training colleagues, disseminating widely especially through the Association of National Teaching Fellows, and in student training and assessments, too. It was through some of this work I got ‘noticed’ and asked to write my most recent book chapter published in March 2022 (“The trouble with normal …” Covid-19’s legacy and the multipotentiality for co-creating teaching, learning and assessing, Digital Connection in Health and Social Work: perspectives from Covid-19), and championed Technology Enhanced Learning with last year’s AdvanceHE Global Torchbearers’ initiative. The cumulative impact of my ‘Spark’ pages have been viewed by thousands of people, globally, on teaching resources around sexual health and HIV, on sexuality matters, on Technology Enhanced Learning and creative digital literacy for e-learning teaching excellence. I have done this because of my love of sharing learning, not because it is a requirement of my work (it isn’t!). But in doing this, new doors have been opened to me as well as the cascade learning potential for developing students across all the programmes I teach on. Lastly, I also develop these resources as a key element of a ‘flipped classroom’ learning provision. The students have access to the materials a week before my time with them, which we then spend in another format, e.g. Mentimeter, for a workshop consolidation of their studies through my prior learning resource. This truly benefits post gradate students, who spend considerable time in practice and not always at their studies. 

Fifth: In recent years, I have developed eight different WordPress blog sites which support my teaching. They include academic perceptions, in Vivat Professores; a range of nursing and healthcare conference presentation videos in Sharing Learning Outside the Classroom, my own CV, and nominations of colleagues and friends for FRCN and Honorary Doctorates. On the inspiration of students I have written some personal memoirs, many nursing related, especially on HIV client care. Through publications of these blogs, I have been ‘discovered’ on Google searches and invited to appear in media interviews in two documentaries on Her Late Royal Highness The Princes of Wales (for CNN in the USA, and Diana’s Decades, ITV, UK) and with Rupert Everett, on “50 shades of gay”.  

Personal statement in support of my Queen’s Nurse application

“This is your opportunity to tell us about what you currently do that illustrates the values you have as a nurse“

The QNI supports leadership, innovation and best practice in order to improve care for people, their families and the communities they serve. These principles sit well across my nurse teaching practice of 32 years. 

In 2018, I was awarded Principal Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy, one of only about 1,000 academics with this qualification. PFHEA is certification for “leadership and management of teaching and learning” at national and international levels. Although at the time of application I was “only” a senior lecturer in sexual health, my leadership potential in sexual health had been demonstrated nationally; in a wealth of professional healthcare and academic publications, and at national and international conferences, often invited keynote speaker. 

Demonstrating integrity, honesty and compassion whilst delivering the highest quality care to the benefit of individuals, carers, families, communities and peers, is through my teaching, support and professional presence across the full range of community / primary care nurses, midwives and allied health, social care, health promotion and voluntary sector practitioners. This evidence includes a number of crucial exemplars, many which started some time ago but are still operational across the years, to this day.

Between 2002 – 2004 I developed the RCN Sexual Health Skills course, primarily of community staff, such as School Nurses, Primary Care / General Practice; Sexual Health; Teenage Pregnancy Nurses / Midwives; District Nurses; Travel Nurses; Learning Disability Nurses. I managed this course, sometimes with a team of 5 concurrent administrators, for almost 3,000 students, from 2004 onwards. To this day, I still offer the course, as e-learning provision, at the University of Greenwich. I developed an Adobe Spark page on wider sexual health learning opportunities at Greenwich, viewed by more than 3,800 professionals in 3 years.

It was with major evidence from my development and management of the Sexual Health Skills course that I used towards awards such as National Teaching Fellow and PFHEA, exemplifying my leadership, innovation and best practice in order to improve care for people, their families and the communities they serve.

From 2016 onwards, through active membership of the SCPHN / District Nursing Curriculum Programme Team, I continue to collaborate on the successful NMC validation and re-validations; demonstrating my commitment to learning and the development of community nursing. For the module I run on the PGDip programme, I organise and facilitate 3 days, annually, of an innovative research methods “conference”. This is for student assignment presentations for their specific field-of-practice developments, enabling them to promote the development and recognition of community nursing practice. To enable students to better achieve the outcomes of their learning, with their conference-style presentations, I have created a bespoke Adobe Express learning resource for them, as well as some handy hints used right across the School, for “Understanding level 7-ness” (viewed by over 1,200, including across wider academia via Twitter).

Respecting my individual clients, i.e. my students, I designed the research methods courses for PGDip SCPHN appreciating that some of them may be new to level 7 studies; that some may struggle – especially with research methods – and that some may be reluctant participants in their learning programme.

One such student appeared very discontent that she had to be on a research methods module; claimed it had no relevance to the clinical care she provided, and was antagonistic from start to finish. After the course ended – and she agreed that she did enjoy doing a conference presentation, even though terribly nervous – I put on a free and voluntary study event, encouraging them to ‘write for publication’. Much to my surprise, this individual turned up. In front of all her colleagues, she apologised for her behaviour across the module, and asked me how I ‘put up with’ her. As she was being so open and honest, I asked if I could be, too. She consented.  I replied: “I would enter the class expecting you would have a face like a smacked bum! I considered it my goal to turn that frown upside down!” She and they all laughed, but I explained how I knew she was the one who found the sessions hardest to deal with – in all sincerity – and therefore my benchmark of successful teaching would be if I could enable her to understand the relevance of our topics to her professional practice.       

It is not uncommon for me to receive a number of totally unsolicited invites to present at conferences, such as a primary speaker at the International School Nurses’ Conference (2015) and RCN School Nurses Conference as ‘the’ keynote presenter, 2018 and 2021. Similar invites may be national or international events, such as when I performed various sessions and the main ExPLISSIT Malta Conference presentation (introduced by the Secretary of State for Education, and attended by the Secretary of State for Health) for school nurses, teachers and primary care staff (2015) or the Sexual Health and Well-being Conference, in Denmark. Another significant conference presentation was on LGBT+ Resilience in Northern Ireland.  I panicked, a bit, at this invite, knowing the situation for sexual and gender minorities in the Province. So I asked the organisers how they found me. They said “1) We follow you on Twitter! 2) Every time you say on Twitter you’ve published something, we read it! 3) We know an ex-student of yours, who highly recommends you.”

Some medical / inter-professional conferences I have been invited to speak at have been in relation to nurse education, and how it sits in regard to medical / inter-professional learning and their qualifications. These conferences include invitation as keynote speaker at RCOG Institute of Psychosexual Medicine (2014 & 2021) with unofficial influence for encouraging medical professionals opening their qualifications and membership to nurses and physiotherapists; and RCOG Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Health (2022). These presentations build on earlier work, when I presented at the All Party Parliamentary Group on Sexual and Reproductive Health, in 2015.

How do I see myself as a Queen’s Nurse and what does the title mean to me?

This is your opportunity to tell us about how you align yourself with the Queen’s Nurse values.

Should I achieve this great honour, then, how I see myself as a Queen’s Nurse and what the title actually means to me are intricately entwined. Hopefully the reader will notice how I have embedded the core values and requirements of being a QN not only in this application, but, in truth, across my 32 years of teaching nurses, midwives, allied health and social care professionals. Evidence is in ways I endeavour to demonstrate integrity, honesty and compassion through work with students and colleagues alike, promoting and inspiring the same in others; hopefully, my legacy to nursing and the world in which we live. 

The title of Queen’s Nurse is emblematic of someone embodying the highest values of distinction in their profession. It is going ‘above and beyond’, not just for oneself, but, crucially, with and for others. Promoting great achievements in others, ‘passing on the torch’ (tradimus lampada; motto of the RCN) of caring for others, is part and parcel of how I operate as a nurse and a leading nurse educator. Over the years, I have successfully nominated two multi-professional sexual health nurse leaders for Fellowship of the Royal College of Nursing (Colin Roberts and Dr Mathew Grundy-Bowers); been instrumental in promoting the influential contraception and reproductive nurse specialist, Dr Kathy French, for Honorary Fellowship of the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Health (RCOG). Successfully nominated two Honorary Doctors of the University of Greenwich (Baroness Joyce Gould, sexual health champion, even from her earliest days as a community pharmacist), and the internationally renowned teenage pregnancy ‘guru’ (herself a former registered nurse and health visitor), Alison Hadley, OBE; as well as two Visiting Professors in Sexual Health: the mental health nurse and sociologist, Prof Anthony Pryce-Curling (2012) and Dr Matthew Grundy-Bowers (2021).

Adapting the QN requirement to demonstrate holistic, personalised care which acknowledges, and is tailored to, the needs of the client, in this case, a mental health nurse, I wish to talk about another nomination. I am an avid user of Twitter. Paul Watson and I started chatting on Twitter at the time he was doing a PGDip in SCPHN at a university elsewhere. Paul asked if I could advise him (in my out-of-work, own time, of course) on some assignments. I did so, happily. Paul is now a lead champion in the UK, with growing international and media recognition, in work for military veterans’ families, their mental health and well-being. Still without ever having met, we co-authored an article together in Education and Health journal (his first publication). Then, I nominated him for a North of England Regional NHS award, for “new entrepreneur of the year” (or similar). He got it! My opening line in the nomination was “Paul Watson and I have never met”! (We have now met, firstly, both speaking at the School Nurses’ International Conference and at Twickenham for Army v Navy rugby!). As I write this application, Paul has submitted his doctoral thesis for examination – on mental health care of veteran’s families. I told him I was making this applying and he kindly DMd me a response, on Twitter:

“I met David virtually in 2013 on Twitter during a school nurse chat. At that time I was undertaking my SCPHN course. During many conversations and Twitter chats David was kind enough to offer a struggling student an ear and support with my academic writing, something I was not very confident in, especially at level 7. David supported my academic journey out of kindness and a willingness to see me succeed. I know if it was not for David I would not have succeeded and I would therefore not be doing what I am today. Today, and because of David’s passion for education and educating others, I am a lecturer in children’s nursing and a part of the teaching team within the SCPHN course, with the hope I can pay forward what David was kind enough to offer me: a solid foundation to grow and to support the enhancement of clinical practice through education.”    

With the QNI’s goals for sharing knowledge and best practice; supporting community nurses to achieve outstanding care for their patients, I see ‘Queen’s Nurse’ as an opportunity for being and doing more! I am proposing a development in my School, which I hope to lead on, inspired by my own application for this award (whether or not I get it).

As with that oft-used slogan: “see one, do one teach one”, I would like to encourage, inspire and facilitate others in applying for the QN award. I have a solid record for mentoring, not least as I have now mentored the University’s highest number of Senior Fellows of the Higher Education Academy as well as 2 Associate Fellows and 1 (SCPHN) FHEA, i.e. initial teacher qualification. I am currently mentoring 7 SFHEAs and advocate to 5 Principal Fellows. All but two candidates are nurses / midwives / health visitors. The fact I lead a research methods module on the PGDip SCPHN, and that many QN-relevant nurses are on my MA Health Care Practice or on modules I run on the MSc Advanced Clinical Practice, then I will be suggesting to our Head of School that I instigate / facilitate the setting up of a peer collaboration group, for all those interested in finding out more about the Queen’s Nurse award; then, to work on it, together, for collegial inspiration and support.  Doing this will hopefully help our various community, primary care, SCPHN and all other relevant groups of post graduate students to come together and focus on striving for this award, either during or after their time of studies with us at Greenwich. I consider that this activity will clearly flag-up, to all our students, the seriousness with which we take their professional care-giving, constantly inspiring them to achieve greatness in all they do as compassionate nurses and proud of being our gradates, too.

My vision for the development of community nursing in the future

Someone at a Practice Nurses’ conference once said to me:

“You spoke at a Travel Nurses’ conference 5 years ago. I’m 65, just retiring. I don’t take notes at conferences but memorise one key message from each presenter. You told us never to let a travel consultation go without mentioning condoms. I’ve done it ever since! Even with old married couples: I give vaccines then ask, ‘do you need condoms for holidays?’ They laugh and say ‘no’, then add ‘but now that we are talking, do you mind if we mention ….”

She said that these past 5 years have given her insights into holistic care she had been missing across the whole of her career.

My vision for developing community nursing for the future has already started! Empowering community nurses, by sharing with them expert knowledge, wide-ranging skills and positive ‘can do’ attitudes, i) to maximise their personal and professional development; ii) to be second-to-none in the clinical care they provide; iii) to be grounded in contemporary evidence, and iv) have the courage to disseminate this to others. That’s my fourfold andragogic (adult-learning) vision and how I aim to achieve it!

Current debates about specialist professionalisation are nothing new. In fact, in 2012, a team of three of us had meetings with a Deputy Chief Nurse for England (Prof David Forster) and Registrar of the NMC (Prof Dickon Weir-Hughes), to discuss a specialist register for nurses, using the example of sexual and reproductive health.

Debates, from being an all-gradate profession to the need for academic qualifications for career progression, have strong impetus for Profession and (individual) professional development. Across our increasingly multi-professional health and social care services, nurses cannot be ‘left behind’. That theme appears in the annual conference-style presentations I facilitate: ‘We are stuck in a rut; over-worked; under-valued; disillusioned; isolated; insufficient development; missing out on inter-professional collaboration’; then: ‘burnt out’. 

Two critical events from sexual and reproductive health are relevant to my vision. In 2001, I was fortunate to author the education section of RCN Sexual Health Strategy: Guidance for Nursing Staff. I suggested post-registration nurse development would / should require master’s level qualifications, and that Consultant Nurses might eventually require various  doctoral qualifications. Then, 2012, I was part of the team of lead clinicians and educational providers, with NHS London Specialist Group on Sexual Health, mapping clinical requirements and expectations of newly qualified nurses to the fields of sexual and reproductive practice, through all higher levels of advanced and specialist practice.

In relation to community nurses I teach today, bringing my knowledge and expertise together, certain core imperatives underpin aspects of my teaching, learning and assessing (TLA), including via Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL). For example, on the research methods course: leading students to be research-aware for practice opens them up to deeper levels of critical awareness and epistemological thinking, including viewing controversies and ethical debates; challenging taken-for-granted ‘wisdom’, and propounding new ways for sharing (interprofessional) learning and practice. ‘Pay back’ is clearly witnessed when PGDip SCPHN / DN students disseminate their practice development presentations, not just in class, but to their teams, writing up for publication, or developing skills and courage to present at ‘real’ conferences. Some continue studying to complete a master’s degree – and I hear some say “when I do a doctorate”!

The research methods course has never been ‘just’ about sharing learning with students. It is an opportunity to inspire a cognitive transition from level 6 knowledge and clinical practice, to what it means to study – and practice – as level 7 graduates for the future. This includes disseminating learning; leading practice; inspiring others; collaborating on inter-professional learning and enhanced specialist opportunities. Even using so many different creative digital media resources throughout my TLA provision, for which some – at first – balk and say how “technophobic” they are, to witnessing them inspire their work colleagues, and develop a sense of pride in their own achievements, as they master the use of Prezi, Mentimeter or Adobe Creative Cloud apps, and making and editing their own videos for presentations!

Regarding the student I referred to whose ‘frown’ I wanted to turn upside down! At first, she resisted using creative digital media. By the end of the module, nervous as she was at presenting to others, she learned Prezi and made her first conference-acceptable poster. Then, after the success of her classroom presentation, she overcame her aversion to Twitter and would Tweet me pictures of herself, standing by her poster, as she gave presentations to colleagues, her wider Trust and at a number of regional end-of-life-care events!

Whenever there are local successes like this, they inspire me to go even further. So much of the digital creativity I use in class I have now shared through Adobe Express, with thousands of academics and nursing professionals via social media. More so, I was invited to write for an edited book, with the  chapter becoming the opening one (Digital Connection in Health and Social Work pp 11 – 22). My all-round teaching and resources help consolidate on-line learning encounters with students, giving them cause and inspiration to try new ways of sharing their own good practice, too, whether by creating resources for use with clients, colleagues, their profession or across professions.   

Finally: widening participation in clinical, professional and career development of community nurses. A couple of years ago I had permission to develop the PGDip Enhanced Professional Practice. Nurses, especially across community services, often complain how they have no funding or dedicated time to study (especially if it’s an on-line course). By developing this programme, we have agreed that nurses with up to 60 credits can bring these units in – that’s half the PGDip – free of charge. This effort helps reduce the burden of cost by integrating and consolidating their prior learning, re-purposed on achieving a new qualification and leaving them only 60 credits short of a full masters degree (which we can then offer via the ‘top up’ MA HCP).

Nurse Educators:

My reflection on a situation where I have supported a student and made a difference: a situation where you have guided and supported the student throughout the process.

Description: What was the issue? Describe what happened and the actions you took to address the issue

The event I wish to reflect on happened in 2016, and I have already written on it on my WordPress pages.

The critical incident demonstrates evidence of enthusiasm and passion in the [educational pastoral] care I provide as well as offering holistic, personalised care which acknowledges, and is customised to, the needs of the client – in this case, an undergraduate student.

A pre-registration mental health student e-mailed me and asked if I would supervise him for his bachelor dissertation. I agreed and we set a date to meet up. When we met, his first words were “you don’t recognise me, do you?” I teach thousands of students a year, including some – as in his class – for about 250 – 300 students at a time. I was a guest lecturer on his course, for about 3 or 4 sessions. During these lecture-hall sessions, students come and go; some may be late; some go early; some go to out for breaks and various reasons. 

He said, “the first time you taught us, on gender and sexuality issues, I walked out of the class, thinking to myself ‘Why should I be taught by this big old pouf?!’” (I was only 59 at the time!) He then explained that he came from a certain central African nation. He said his country is homophobic; his Christian church is homophobic; his family is homophobic, and he was homophobic. But then he realised he would be missing out on learning, if he absented himself from all my sessions; so, he stayed to listen. His letter of award nomination, to our then Vice Chancellor (see the link above) states:

“I consider it a privilege that I had this encounter while I was still a student at Greenwich University because I would have probably had a rough time as a nurse if he hadn’t been one of our lecturers. So I nominate Dr Evans. Win or win, he has been a blessing to my career.”

He recounted how I had intellectually and personally challenged his life stance; that, prior to working through my sessions, he used to avoid LGBandT+ clients in mental health services, but that – due to my teaching – he not only proactively went out of his way to work with sexual and gender minority people, but he even tried broadening his own leaning, by joining the Student LGBT+ society, and even tried ‘enlightening’ his family, back home.

I thanked him for his honesty and openness, and we worked together really well for an amazing outcome of his bachelor dissertation on the very topic of sexuality issues in mental health care.

Feelings: What did I think and feel?

Demonstrating high standards of practice and person-centred care, my main feeling was appreciation; appreciation that a student could be so open and honest with me, so-much-so he even requested me to supervise him over a 6 month period. I also felt sorry for some of the terrible homophobic stories he told me from his family, culture and religion “back home”. Challenging my prior assumptions, I even felt somewhat more sceptical about the numbers of students who go in and out of lecture halls, over the years. How many of those might have been walking out, because they don’t want to be taught by “a big old pouf” – and equally seriously, therefore, missing out on core elements of their nursing education, for truly embodying the opening paragraph of their NMC (2018) Code, on “prioritising people … including challenging ALL forms of discrimination”.

Evaluation: What did I learn?

I learned how to strive continuously, challenging students to learn and improve: gently, kindly, compassionately, even through tough moments of challenging experiences. A motto from my Catholic priestly studies days, with the Franciscans in Canterbury (1980s), sticks with me and motivates my approach to others: “honey goes down easier than vinegar”.

Over 50% of our nursing students are from overseas, especially from some ethic communities and religions which are hostile to many of the sexuality and gender minority issues I teach on today.  So, my main learning was to adapt and re-apply a famous mantra I equally try to live by, from Teaching Backwards (Griffith and Burns, 2014): “If your students can’t learn the way you teach, you need to learn to teach the way they learn”. No truer is this than in respectfully exploring and challenging sometimes very intransigent belief systems, which are incompatible with the law and ethos of human rights in the UK and under the European Convention on Human Rights (and our current domestic equivalent!).

Analysis: What was good and bad about the experience?

What was good, by far, outweighs what was bad. The bad was the sad reality of people and belief systems, time and place over, which remain hostile to individuals who are different to the majority, simply on grounds of sexual orientation or gender minority / difference and queer ‘otherness’. Sadly, none of this is new to me. Growing up gay in the 1960s, through nursing in the 1970s and working on an AIDS ward in the 1980s, along with 7 years studying for the Catholic priesthood and ordination into a rather homophobic institution, all taught me that even those who care for others can be negatively impacted by stigma, prejudice and discrimination to others, simply because of difference.

The good: All of my life’s prior learning enables me, in true multipotentialite fashion, to be compassionate in challenging myself and others in the learning environment, so that I communicate in a manner which encourages the trust of individuals – as particularly witnessed by this current student story. This incident then inspired me to write for the international Wiley Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Social Theory, on “Sexualities”, a publication I now disseminate to students and build upon in teaching encounters with them.

Conclusion: What would I do differently next time, bearing in mind there is always room for improvement?

What to do differently inspired me to develop a brand-new teaching session and learning resource, which I have taught even in the School of Education, to PGCE (school teachers) students, entitled “Not just homophobia”. The resource looks at underlying stigma, stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination that can affect all people of minority status, especially based on sexualities and genders, and even worse when compounded by other intersection discriminators. Another key learning point for me is to enable students, themselves, to express the various discriminatory words, or to expose the incidents or life-ways they have witnessed, naming and claiming the terms / stories themselves, rather than letting them think various ideas are being imposed on them ‘from above’, i.e. from the teacher. 

Action plan: Did I make a difference? How do I know? What have I learnt from this experience that will influence my future practice? How did I share the learning?

Almost all of my teaching sessions end with a focus on “What difference can I make?”, challenging the students to ask themselves: what difference can they make. In 32 years of teaching, the raison d’ être of my pedagogic and andragogic practice has always been to be the best nurse I can ever be – building on the multipotential of clinical practice, research and education, and the pastoral experiences of being a Catholic priest – then to share that with my students. If I can be a good, compassionate, expert nurse, and if I can inspire and champion that in every student I teach, then my contribution to client care is multiplied by thousands of percent, i.e. by each and every student that goes out and improves care because of something I have said to them, or inspired within them. In that way, I feel honoured to be valued by the people they serve and respected and admired by my peers.

What I have learned from this event has also inspired my active participation in our University of Greenwich LGBT+ Staff Community; in being interviewed for various public presentations – such as at the PhiMu Chapter of Sigma Nursing, 2021 (with Ruth Oshikanlu) – and in active participation for our institution’s great achievement, i.e. of moving into the top 75 of Stonewall award-winning Gold employers. I also share so much of this learning and reflection via a wide range of teaching opportunities, especially for the School Nurses (many of whom know of young people suffering because of other people’s intransigence in beliefs and practice around sexual orientation), and authoring a webpage for the University of Greenwich’s response to Her Majesty’s Government consultation, on banning so-called “conversion therapy”.

NB. The WordPress page was published with the former student’s explicit permission