As our Head of Global, Jeni Caguioa, completes her secondment at FNF, we asked her to share her highlights of the year. Her impact has been immense, we look forward to continued collaboration with her and her team now she is back at NHS England.
“As an internationally educated nurse from the Philippines, I have worked in the NHS in various settings for the last 24 years but I am privileged to have been seconded at FNF for the last year. Reflecting on my time, here are just some of the highlights:
September 2022: Leading and delivering the first bespoke Internationally Educated Nurses and Midwives (IENM) Online Leadership Programme
My first task when I joined FNF was to recruit 1,000 IENMs for this bespoke leadership programme. Before the end of the month, we already had 1600 applicants and in response to this demand we ran another cohort in May 2023. Our evaluation reports demonstrated that we had a 99% satisfaction on the overall experience and 98.6% would recommend this programme to others, our learning technologist was very impressed. There is already anecdotal evidence of the impact that it has had on IENMs who have completed this programme. My FNF colleagues are now working on a formal evaluation.
February 2023: Meeting King Charles at Buckingham Palace
I could not believe that a gold embossed invite would arrive by post. Through the nomination of the UK Ambassador to the Philippines, I, along with other IEN colleagues were invited to an evening reception for South East Asian Communities to meet members of the Royal Family and represent FNF as an internationally educated nurse from the Philippines.
April 2023: Hosting the INMA Celebration event
For the second time, we gathered the International Nurses and Midwives Association (INMAs) leads in person to celebrate their projects from the second round of small grants from NHS England. This culminated with a colourful, cultural show of national dress and talent from its members.
July 2023: FNF Presence at the International Council of Nurses (ICN) in Montreal, Canada
It was a dream come true that I was able to attend the congress and present our work and be star struck seeing in person Howard Catton, ICN CEO; listening to Dr Amelia Latu Afuhaamango Tuipulotu, CNO of World Health Organisation, “encouraging the 28 million nurses to speak up now and use our collective voice to influence health policies.”
July 2023: Supporting and facilitating our first ever global scholars
We brought together senior nurses from India, Philippines, Australia, Zimbabwe, Iceland and Ireland. An aspiration of Dame Yvonne Moores, previous chair of FNF was to offer scholarships for senior nurses and midwives working across the world. Working collaboratively with the Academy team we ensured the successful delivery of our first cohort of FNF Global leadership Scholars of 13 senior nurse and midwife leaders, from recruitment to supporting their programme schedule last summer.
September 2023: Celebrating Nursing and Midwifery cultures/ heritage
I always believe that we can understand people better if we work on our cultural competency. One of my aims is to raise the profile of our IENs and INMAs because cultural heritage is so important to them. FNF holds regular webinars to shine a light on nurses and midwives from various cultures so we can appreciate diversity. I was honoured to host the first ever East and South East Asia (ESEA) heritage month webinar to celebrate the contributions of our international nurses and midwives from Asia who have broken through the “bamboo ceiling”.
October 2023: Getting my FNF Scholar badge, finally
I was an FNF scholar in 2021 but was unable to graduate and march on stage to get my official badge until this year and become an FNF alumni. Listening to the work of other FNF scholars during the Scholars conference has made me reflect on how important it is that we signpost FNF programmes to all our nursing workforce.
Overall, it’s been an extraordinary opportunity to be able to put my IEN perspective into the programmes of FNF and be connected with such purposeful work. I also want to say a big thank you for having me as part of a wonderful committed team, even for just a year.”
Jeni is now back in her substantive post at NHS England as International Recruitment and Ethnic Minorities Nurse Advisor in the IR Nursing Programme team following a year’s secondment at FNF. Within this role at NHSE she is dedicated full time to supporting the International Nursing and Midwifery Associations and relevant programmes. Lucy Brown, FNF Director of Leadership Development, remains on hand to support from FNF: we are working in partnership to ensure continuity of support for the INMA Community.
Find out more about FNF Global, here.
