Admiral Nurse
Fran is a general and mental health nurse with 34 years’ experience. For the past 20 years, she has specialised in dementia in different settings including hospital in-patient departments, care homes, research settings and the community. She trained and worked in Zimbabwe for 11 years before moving to the UK. It was in the NHS older adult in-patient environments that Fran first encountered both younger and older people with a dementia diagnosis.
Fran has worked as a Research Therapist in the NHS supporting care homes to improve the Wellbeing and Health for People Living with Dementia (WHELD programme). She has been a Clinical Research Nurse supporting on research studies in mental health, dementia and degenerative conditions. Fran worked as a Dementia and Mental Health Discharge Liaison Nurse for people with dementia moving from a hospital in Oxfordshire to care homes. Fran became an Admiral Nurse in 2020, working for a charitable Trust supporting families and staff providing care for older people in extra care housing schemes, in nursing homes, in dementia and residential care, as well as in the community in Henley-on-Thames. She joined Dementia Oxfordshire in 2023.
Fran holds a BSc in Mental Health Practice and an MSc, Management in Health, and Social Care. Fran recently completed a Doctorate in Advanced Healthcare Practice (DAHP) with a thesis titled, An interpretative phenomenological analysis of the experiences of spouses of people with young onset dementia of transition from hospital to a care home.
Fran said, “I always been passionate about working with the whole family. Mental health outcomes are improved by this way of working in dementia care as the families who live with someone with dementia are experts in their own right.”
