Ms Judith Francois

I have worked at Kingston University as a senior lecturer in the School of Nursing since 2010 and focus on the training of pre- and post-registration nurses, especially in relation to Leadership and Management. I have held a number of roles including Academic Zone Lead from 2012 to 2015, where my responsibilities included overseeing the quality of workplace placements accessed by students, to ensure learning opportunities offered met with the University and Nursing standards. This provided opportunities to build and sustain important external partnerships between those services and the University.

I held the role of Faculty Personal Tutor Lead from 2016 to 2018, focusing on maximising individual support for students and enhancing processes to support this. Since 2017, I have been Admissions Lead for the newly-established Nursing Associate programme for apprentice nurses and UCAS applicants. The apprentice provision is one of the early adopters of course provision and in line with Kingston Teaching and Learning Strategy 2022/2023.

I am especially interested in developing strategies that enable nurses to both express their individual learning needs, and to contextualise this into practice. This has involved in developing approaches that improve students and staff understanding of self in action, and the influence on reflection in enabling resilience. Enabling nurses and nursing students to gain skills in managing and understanding their own resilience, whilst also contending with the inevitable workplace, academic and life stresses, is a personal driver. Within the university setting I have employed a number of initiatives that have built on this theme, including the development of tools for students and personal tutors, that enable a focus on the coping mechanisms of students and the identification of managing self.

I have created more inclusive teaching through the provision of extracurricular interventions. Working collaboratively with a community storyteller to devise an award-winning programme for students from a BAME background, in order to bridge some of the cultural barriers in academia. Good practice acknowledged as a winner of the Kingston University Inclusive Curriculum Bursary 2017.

Courses taught

• Adult Nursing BSc (Hons)
• Adult Nursing MSc

I have a number of current collaborations.

Examining the experiences of nurses out in practice during COVID. A first stage analysis of information has been completed and further in-depth research in this area is underway.

Review of the use of the ROOT tool as a means of enhancing resilience in nurses from a Black and Minority background has been completed and awaiting publications. Further work to develop this into an app in collaboration with Kingston students is underway.

A recent paper examining the role of the researcher, managing discriminatory remarks, has received wide readership with some 600 views in the first four months of publication. Further work will be completed in providing training sessions in this area.

I have developed a number of bespoke programmes for NHS Trusts. Specialising in improving the quality of services by advising on leadership strategies that can be employed. I have worked collaboratively with a Mental Health Trust to pioneer a BAME leadership programme for nursing staff working in a Mental Health Trust, aimed at addressing NHS priorities to increase the numbers of BAME staff in leadership positions. I have developed a teaching strategy by cross-fertilising learning and recommended improvement measures to address the inequalities of BAME staff identified in the NHS with the recommendations of developing an inclusive curriculum of higher education. These teaching materials and curricula allows nurses to explore their own stories, how these stories are received by others and how to influence future stories. I use this as a platform to design bespoke activities to understand leadership presence and incorporated leadership embodiment through movement, the human voice, and art within the teaching programme. The programme has successfully increased the numbers of nurses achieving leadership positions, and introducing improvement programmes that have positively impacted on the quality of care.

The work has been recognised nationally and awarded runner-up at Royal College of Nursing Innovation Awards July 2019. I co-presented the initiative at the NHS England and Improvement Recruitment and Retention awards 2019, further enhancing the audience reach and knowledge exchanged. It also has resulted in further commissions of the work, resulting in a South London and Maudsley Mental Health Trust also incorporating the programme.

Professional and scholarly affiliations

• External Examiner for Anglia Ruskin 2016 to 2019
• Royal College Nursing Foundation Specialist Adviser 2018 to date
• Chief Nursing Officer's Black and Minority Ethnic Strategic Advisory Group
• The London Black & Minority Network for NHS Staff & Allied Professionals
• National Teaching Fellowship - Advance HE
• Nursing and Midwifery Council