Lecturer Iain is in first cohort of new leadership development programme

A University of Northampton (UON) Nursing academic has been honing the skills that will help him develop the profession and his students.

Launched last year the Florence Nightingale Foundation’s (FNF) Academy Fellows programme is open to nurses or midwives registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council who work for an FNF Academy member organisation like UON.

Membership of the Academy provides space and time for like-minded professionals to build their leadership skills and confidence with a view to them going on to support the development of nursing as a profession.

Iain Schrantz is a Senior Lecturer in Mental Health Nursing who became the first person from UON to become an FNF Fellow, one of 60 nationally. He looks back on the first months of his Fellowship: “I applied for the Fellows programme because it is a way to support and develop nursing staff with their leadership skills. It also enables nursing staff and students to access additional teaching materials.

“The Fellows programme is for one year, and so far, I have completed work in areas such as assessment of workplace culture, co-consulting and providing supervision for staff to develop creative working environments, developing skills for writing publications, understanding and supporting entrepreneurship and developing my leadership signature and what values are important to me in the work environment.

“The Fellowship has been a great way to enable this to happen and take time to properly reflect on the content covered. It has been a very positive experience as I regularly meet with other Fellows from across the country; we all feel fortunate to have been selected. It has been well received within the Faculty of Health, Education and Society as other members of the team are interested in applying. The programme will finish in June this year with a ceremony, and I will also be attending the Florence Nightingale service at Westminster Abbey.”

Jess Sainsbury, Head of Nursing and Midwifery Engagement at Florence Nightingale Foundation, adds: “In our commitment to providing leadership development opportunities to the many, FNF has been excited to offer this new 12-month Fellowship programme to nurses and midwives who are employed at our FNF Academy Member organisations. We have over 60 FNF Academy Fellows undertaking the pilot 2023/24 programme and we are delighted to hear such positive feedback.”