Richard French

Richard is an adult nurse, and senior lecturer at ARU, with a background in acute medicine, urgent and emergency care, outpatient infusion services and practice education.

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Background

Richard’s clinical career started with him working in acute medicine, first within gastroenterology and then respiratory, before joining urgent and emergency care as a Deputy Charge Nurse. During this time Richard supported the development of the acute medicine pathways and a Surgical Assessment Unit, before setting up and managing a new outpatient infusion service.

During his career, Richard has developed a range of corporate nursing and leadership and management skills including quality assurance and improvement, and maintaining governance. Richard was also an RCN Steward advocating for and supporting staff in practice. As part of his quality improvement project with NHS Elect, Richard identified the delays in the transfer of patients from the Medical Assessment Unit to the acute wards. This supported the recruitment of two new members of staff to support in the improvement of patient flow.

Richard has always had a passion for practice education, acting as the Placement Learning Coordinator in practice before starting as a Practice Education Lead, responsible for adult and children’s nursing, district nursing, return to practice and health visiting and school nursing. Richard led on the development of return to practice within an adult community and mental health Trust and, with his colleague, developed a corporate bespoke placement brochure which received regional recognition.

Areas of expertise 

• Nursing
• Practice Education
• Leadership and Management

Research interests

• Respiratory nursing
• Return to Practice
• Practice supervision and assessment
• Student health and wellbeing

As part of his MA Richard undertook a qualitative piece of research using semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis. Richard researched the implementation of the Standards for Student Supervision and Assessment (SSSA) (NMC, 2018) and current mentors’ perceptions of their impact on practice at his NHS Trust.

Teaching

Richard mentored students’ and colleagues in practice and was also a Practice Assessor when mentorship was replaced. Richard provided bespoke training to his colleagues in urgent and emergency care on the management of chest drains and undertook ANTT Train the Trainer training with the Association for Safe Aseptic Practice to improve the use of ANTT in practice. As a Practice Education Lead Richard continued to be a Practice Assessor when required and supported with the development of educational strategies and policies.

Qualifications

Academic Qualifications

• Postgraduate Certificate Medical and Healthcare Education, Anglia Ruskin University (2022)
• MA Education Studies, University of Portsmouth (2019)
• Supporting Learners in Practice Module, University of Portsmouth (2018)
• BSc (Hons) Adult Nursing, Anglia Ruskin University (2015)

Professional qualifications

• Edward Jenner Programme, NHS Leadership Academy (2020)
• Quality Improvement Course, NHS Elect (2018)
• ANTT Train the Trainer Course, Association for Safe Aseptic Practice (2018)
• Steward Representative Training, Royal College of Nursing (2017)
• Fundamentals of Coaching, Isle of Wight NHS Trust (2017)

Memberships, editorial boards

• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
• Nursing and Midwifery Council
• Royal College of Nursing