Northampton welcomes its European midwifery and nursing peers

Waterside campus was opened to health professionals from across Europe today (Wed 10 April) as the University showcased midwifery and nursing education across the institution.

The influential Florence Network chose the UK as the destination for their annual conference and visited the two universities who are their only members in the country.

Delegates spent Monday evening and Tuesday with their first hosts, the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences at Coventry University.

Today, they travelled to Northampton to tour the University’s new campus and sampled the teaching facilities here and across the town.

This included trying new, virtual reality software for nursing students before embarking on trips to visit the University’s Competence Test Centre for internationally qualified nurses and midwives.

Other delegates visited two of the University’s key health partners, Northampton General Hospital and St. Andrew’s Healthcare.

Subject Lead for Nursing at the University Donna Bray and Florence Network President Susan Schärli opened the conference. The day’s activities also included workshops about:

• The Midwifery Professional Midwifery Advocate
• The Professional Doctoral Programme and Research in Midwifery
• Female Genital Mutilation
• Challenging the notion of women’s work: Male midwives and men who nurse
• Nursing curriculum development at the University of Northampton
• 100 years of the learning disability nurse
• The Dementia Village
• Co-production and recovery for mental health
• Mental Health First Aid
• International nursing trips by University of Northampton students.

The Florence Network is a partnership of 40 healthcare focused education institutions across Europe. Its main objectives are to make nursing and midwifery more visible in Europe, exchange opportunities for students and teachers, compare curricula, improve the quality of nursing and midwifery education and co-operate for research.

Dr. Steve O’Brien, Dean of the Faculty of Health and Society at University of Northampton said: “As one of only two university’s in the UK to be members of the Florence Network, it has been a privilege to welcome our nursing and midwifery peers from across the continent.

“The title of the conference made their visit to our new, £330m campus at Waterside particularly apt. ‘Future forward: the future of nursing and midwifery in a changing health arena’ captures not only the outlook for the professions, but also reflects how universities such as Northampton are embracing new technologies in our state of the art simulation suite and educational innovations to help shape future generations of nurses and midwives.

“We look forward to continuing our close working ties with the network in the months and years ahead.”

Susan Schärli-Lim, President of the Florence Network, said:“The Florence Network is a community of nurses and midwives reflecting the cultural diversity of the European Union. Its main goals include stimulating an organising the exchange of students and lecturers, contributing to the quality development of curriculum, to develop common projects and research, all to encourage the visibility of nursing and midwifery.

“We are delighted to have visited our partners in Northampton and Coventry, to look at the future of so many aspects of healthcare training and education.”

Find out more about Midwifery at the University of Northampton.

Find out more about nursing courses at the University.