MSc(Nur), PG Dip(Crit Care Child), RN

Clare is a registered nurse who has worked in the field of paediatrics for over 20 years. She qualified in the UK and worked in the Paediatric ICU at Birmingham Children’s Hospital (UK) for five years, before moving to South Africa to join The Harry Crossley Children’s Nursing Development Unit. At that time, the Unit was in the process of launching Africa’s first postgraduate critical care child nurse training programme and Clare was appointed as Africa’s first and only critical care child nursing lecturer. Clare ultimately taught into and then led the Postgraduate Diplomas in Child and Critical Care Child Nursing for 13 years.

Since 2021, Clare has led the design and development of another ‘Africa first’ in training – the suite of 'Essentials of Nursing Children' short courses. These courses are innovative, offered using an asynchronous, online approach, intended to extend training opportunities to nurses working with children across the sub-Saharan African region. Clare also is the Instructional Design Lead for the Unit as well as one of three members of the Executive Committee.

Clare graduated with a Master’s in Nursing (UCT) in 2013 and is currently registered for her PhD. Through this current study, she hopes to be able to further address region-specific challenges in training nurses working with children, through the development of a resource to guide educators in the use of an online learning approach.