Local Organising Committee
Professor Kathleen Carolan
Professor Kathleen Carolan is the Director of Nursing and Acute Services at NHS Shetland. She graduated with BSc (Hons) in Nursing Practice from the University of Manchester and also holds a MBA and DCert READ from Queen Margaret University. Her nursing career includes leadership roles in epidemiology, clinical effectiveness and regional quality improvement programmes. Since 2003 she has worked in various senior positions in primary care and acute care in Shetland and was appointed as the Director of Nursing, Midwifery and AHPs by NHS Shetland in 2010. She is also a Visiting Professor at the University of Highlands and Islands. Her areas of interest include remote and rural clinical practice and understanding the impact of advanced clinical practice roles in multi-professional models of health and social care. She is the inaugural chair of the North of Scotland Advanced Practice Academy and is a vice chair of the Scottish Executive Nurse Directors (SEND) national forum.
Dr Heather Bain
Dr Heather Bain is Assistant Head of Department at University of Highlands and Islands starting in October 2022. Since coming into education in 2002 Heather has worked at Robert Gordon University leading the implementation of the Non Medical Prescribing course and subsequently became the course leader of the post registration district nurse course and then led the Masters courses and CPD portfolio within the School before being part of the School’s senior leadership team as Academic Strategic Lead. Heather led the introduction of the paramedic science programme into Robert Gordon University in 2020.
Heather has actively promoted community nursing throughout the UK, being a member of several working groups and is one of the co-ordinators behind @weCommNurses on Twitter. Heather reviews prescribing and district nursing programmes on behalf of the Nursing and Midwifery Council and has had a secondment with the Nursing and Midwifery Council as Prescribing/Medicines Management Expert Advisor inputting into the 2018 prescribing standards. She has recently published a textbook on The Principles and Practice of Nurse Prescribing and is now working on the 3rd edition of the Textbook of Community Nursing
Colette Henderson
Colette Henderson is an experienced educator and current programme lead for the MSc Advanced Practice at the University of Dundee. Colette is involved nationally with the development of Advanced Practice having established the Scottish Advanced Practice newsletter, the Scottish Advanced Practice Educators Network, a multiprofessional Scottish Mental Health Advanced Practice Support Network and a Scottish Advanced Practice Doctoral Support Network. UK wide, Colette is the Scottish representative on the Association of Advanced Practice Educators UK (AAPE UK) and internationally Co-Chair of the comms group of the ICN NPAPN network. Colette is research active currently leading a multiprofessional review of OSCE assessment. Colette has over 20 years’ clinical experience as an advanced practitioner in wide range of primary care roles and has led innovative advanced practice service developments.
Dr Janyne Afseth
Janyne Afseth is a Senior Lecturer (Academic Team Lead – Postgraduate portfolio) based in the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Paramedic Practice at Robert Gordon University. She registered with the Nursing Midwifery Council (NMC) as an Adult Health Nurse in 1993 and has a background in nursing and management in the fields of oncology and clinical research. She recently completed a PhD examining supportive care needs in brain tumour patients and their families and has been involved in a number of projects and advisory groups focused on supportive care of individuals affected by cancer. This includes previous involvement in the evaluation of the ‘Transforming Care after Treatment’ in Scotland and as part of the steering group for the Royal College of Nurses, Cancer and Breast Care Forum. She is currently part of the steering group for the UK Oncology Nursing Society members’ interest group for Research. Her expertise in supportive care for cancer patients after treatment has been shared internationally at conferences as well as transferring this knowledge into practice through instructional sessions.
Before joining RGU in 2022, Janyne was based at Edinburgh Napier University and while there led and contributed to the design of programmes on healthcare management, clinical research and nursing. She also was the overall project lead for an Erasmus + project involving three other European universities which examined the educational needs in health and social care and jointly designed and delivered masters modules for health and social care masters students from all universities. She was also the academic lead for quality within the School of Health and Social Care and the Deputy Lead for International.
Dr Audrey Stephen
Audrey is a lecturer in the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Paramedic Practice at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen. She is a key member of the team on the post registration programme for advancing practice, taking students to Masters level study through her leadership of the MSc dissertation module. She has a background in research and has designed and carried out studies in a range of topic areas and with different methodologies and methods. Areas of interest for Audrey include end of life care and bereavement care, older people, social support, research ethics, and education. She is enthusiastic about enabling and supporting advancing practice students to develop their areas of interest and to implement small studies which lead to enhancement and evidence informed changes in practice. Outside work, she is a trustee for a small voluntary sector organisation which supports children and young people after bereavement.
ICN NP / APN Network Conference 2024 is supported by
ICN NP/APN Organised by: North of Scotland Advanced Practice Academy