Mrs Julie Messenger

Professional biography

Julie provides academic leadership to the School of Health, Wellbeing and Social Care as Senior Lecturer, Nursing fulfilling the roles of Official Correspondent to the NMC and as Assessment Lead. In addition, Julie has the role of school Strategic Lead (Projects) with a focus on two specific workstreams. The first is to work with the university Business Development Unit to provide academic leadership for new business initiatives related to opportunities from tenders. The second focus is to co lead on the development of action iniatives arising from the Bronze Award from Advance HE for Athena Swan that promotes gender equality in the workplace. 

Julie was a reviewer for Mott MacDonald, an organisation previously contracted by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) to approve and monitor nursing provision from educational and service perspectives - ensuring compliance with standards set by professional statutory bodies. This role also entailed the consideration for approval of programmes in Nursing where professional acknowledgement/accreditation by the NMC is sought. Julie has bought that experience and insight to the school and is central to the external monitoring and NMC approval processes that the school is required to engage with. More recently, Julie has built on this expertise and has since 2023 been appointed as a Lead Reviewer for the Office for Students.

Since 2011 Julie has contributed to many of the reviews for internal quality assurance by regularly chairing internal Programme Periodic Reviews for the university. This has enabled Julie to demonstrate effective leadership and influence over many subject areas of the university. 

Since joining the Open University, Julie has held a number of senior roles in nursing and through these roles she has led and steered curriculum innovation. She has chaired module development, authored materials for learning online and led module delivery for students. Through authoring, Julie has been able to integrate innovative developments including more recently the use of Enquiry-based learning in the Future Nurse curriculum.  

Julie has led numerous approval events including the 2012 & 2019 pre-registration nursing NMC approvals seeking ways to deliver learning to students that promotes practices to increase the sense of true learning communities through a shared curriculum. This has enabled pre-registration students to have full exposure to the needs of multiple service users and through this added insight, provide the tools and expertise to respond in a sensitive and appropriate manner when providing care.

Julie's practice background reflects Adult Nursing Care with special areas of interest in the field of wound care being driven by her clinical experience in surgical nursing and leadership. Since moving into education, Julie has developed a particular interest in promoting effective leadership and management and this reflects Julie's post graduate studies and work experience in education. Her scholarship has focused on areas related to academic skill development for widening participation students and more recently in reviewing the experience of higher education students who are also carers.

Research interests

Facilitation of learning

Gender and organisational implications

Embracing diversity within organisations

Service user voice in practice and education

Working to incorporate and evaluate models of service improvement into the pre registration curricula

Factors affecting assessment achievement in students entering higher education from widest participation groups.

Teaching interests

Organisational Development

Management

Professional Development 

Research

Quality governance

Service improvement models