Helen Bedford

University of York, England

After an early career in clinical nursing and educational research, Helen qualified as a midwife and completed her PhD on the learning experiences of undergraduate nursing students and newly qualified graduate nurses. She has practised clinically in hospital and community settings and was seconded as Project Midwife to develop the Scottish Woman-Held Maternity Record (SWHMR), which is currently in use throughout NHS Scotland.

Helen is an experienced educator and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She has undertaken programme leadership and curriculum development roles for pre-registration undergraduate and post-registration postgraduate programmes. She actively engages with colleagues from health and social care disciplines, and has represented midwifery within cross-institutional interprofessional education (IPE) initiatives. Helen has contributed to national agendas in Scotland as a member of NHS Education for Scotland (NES) Early Clinical Careers Fellowships (ECCF) Stakeholder Group and via implementation of the NES funded Maternity Care Assistant preparation programme.

Helen’s teaching, scholarship and research interests include innovative curriculum design and she is currently undertaking activity to enhance internationalisation within her professional role. At the University of York Helen engages across the institution, being a member of the Learning & Teaching Forum Committee and a facilitator for the York Professional and Academic Development (YPAD) scheme. Helen is an experienced external examiner and a peer-reviewer. She supervises PhD and MSc students and has led Masters level courses on qualitative methodologies. As a qualified, practising coach, Helen has experience of coaching in HE settings.