I am a Senior Lecturer in Nursing and the Lead for Internationalisation at the University of the Highlands and Islands, based in Inverness.
The focus of my Fellowship was to explore models and pedagogical approaches to dementia education and training in the USA, Singapore and India. Given the dementia prevalence nationally and globally, I am keen to ensure that we provide world-class and excellent dementia education and training, focusing my academic citizenship and educational leadership on dementia nurse higher education in Scotland. I passionately believe that every nurse needs to continue to invest in the 'world bank of nursing' for future nurses to draw from – my investment is in dementia education. I have pioneered innovation and excellence in dementia nurse education by developing two innovative dementia curricula: Being Dementia Smart (2013), and Dementia Enhanced Education to promote Excellence (2017). More recently, as a recipient of the Covid-19 Action Fund, I have developed Covid-19 Dementia Education for Care Homes (CODECH), to train care home staff using a blended approach.
The Fellowship has been an opportunity of a lifetime to build bridges for dementia education.