Keynote Speakers
Anne Taylor Parish
Anne Taylor BSc (Nursing) Hons RGN, DipHE DN Cert, MSc Adv HCP (Open), Queen’s Nurse
Director of Nursing, Parish Nursing Ministries UK
X: @AFTaylorDN
A graduate of Edinburgh University, Anne initially worked in acute general medicine and then oncology before ‘escaping’ hospital nursing to become a community nurse. Anne completed her District Nurse Specialist Practitioner Qualification and worked as a District Nurse in diverse East Oxford in the 1990s. She provided a nursing view to city-wide healthcare provision as a member of the new Primary Care Group Board and subsequently as a Primary Care Trust Board & Executive Committee Member alongside her District Nursing. After maternity leave, Anne worked flexibly around family commitments as a sessional District Nurse and in an Out Of Hours palliative care role. Anne became a Queen’s Nurse and completed the MSc in Advancing Healthcare Practice at the Open University in 2016 and worked as a Practice Tutor and latterly as an Academic Assessor at the University from 2017 until 2022, alongside sessional District Nursing. On 30th March 2020 she joined Parish Nursing Ministries UK Home | as Director of Nursing.
Professor Melanie Rogers PhD
Department of Nursing and Midwifery, The University of Huddersfield
Professor Melanie Rogers is an internationally renowned Advanced Practice Nurse clinician, educator and researcher. She is the Professor of Advanced Practice and Spirituality at the University of Huddersfield, in England, as well as a National Teaching Fellow. She still works clinically as an Advanced Nurse Practitioner in Primary Care and is committed to improving person centred care. Melanie is an executive member of the International Network for the Study of Spirituality and runs their Student Scholars Network. Her international work and collaborations on spirituality are extensive and well developed. Melanie is a Queens Nurse and Global Nurse Consultant.
Melanie is passionate about nursing and how we can provide the care needed at the point of need for our patients. Her work and research has focused on how to provide truly holistic care to patients and her doctoral studies have led to a spirituality framework for Nurse Practitioners to help patients find hope, meaning and purpose during times of illness and challenge.
She has multiple publications related to advanced practice and spirituality and has published three edited books; Spiritually Competent Practice, Spiritual Dimensions of Advanced Practice Nursing and Advanced Practice Nursing to Enhance Global Health. Her recent research projects have included global studies on Job Satisfaction for Nurse Practitioners in Developed and Developing Countries, Diagnostic Reasoning skills of APNs and Emotional and Spiritual Wellbeing and Resilience of APNs during Covid-19 globally. Melanie chaired the working party that developed the 2020 ICN APN Guidelines.
Dr. Tove Giske, Professor in Nursing
Institute of Nursing, VID Specialized University, Bergen, Norway
Dr. Tove Giske is a professor in nursing at the Institute of Nursing at VID Specialized University, Bergen, Norway. She is a registered nurse with her master and PhD in Nursing from the University of Bergen. Dr. Giske enjoys teaching and doing research and she collaborates with nurse educators and researchers in many countries such as Ghana, Sierra Leone, the Netherlands, the UK, and California. Her passion is education and research in spiritual care, and she has published extensively internationally and presented her work in many countries. She has published books in the areas of grounded theory and spiritual care. The last book is Cone & Giske (2022) The Nurse’s Handbook of Spiritual Care. Wiley Blackwell. Dr. Giske is a part of the EPICC network. She leads a research group at VID named SPIRCARE and an excellent research network named Spiritual Care Education and Practice Development (SEP) where she collaborates with international researchers.
René van Leeuwen
René van Leeuwen is a Dutch retired professor in nursing. He started his career in health care as a mental health nurse and for many years he was a teacher in higher nursing education. He received his doctorate in nursing by developing the Spiritual Care Competence Scale. René was director of the research department ‘Spirituality in Healthcare’ at Viaa University in Zwolle Netherlands. He published (inter)nationally about spiritual care in nursing. He is a member of EPICC and a former chair of this network.
The Revd Dr. David Southall, Chaplaincy Team Leader and Equalities Engagement Lead
Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust
I've reached 60 and my life has been an interlocking chain of events. Of course, my family come first and that has been an adventure on high waves with three adopted kids, now grown, with their own baggage; some of which just can't be jetisoned; and now with children of their own. The solid rock in my life is my wife and soul partner Alison, As old as I am, I remain curious about how the cosmos works and what makes humanity tick. I think the stories that we tell ourselves are among the most important things in the world.