University News Last updated 15 February 2012
A midwife who has worked tirelessly to champion the interests of women from minority and underprivileged backgrounds will receive an honorary doctoral degree from Birmingham City University next week in recognition of her outstanding achievements in the field of nursing and midwifery.
Yana Richens undertook general nurse training in 1979, prior to becoming a midwife in 1988. In 1991, she went on to undertake her first degree at the University of Central England (UCE), as it was then known, before going on to take her MSc Advanced Practice Midwifery Masters in Advanced Midwifery Practice at UCE in 1998. Last year she completed a Master of Philosophy at Warwick University.
Dr Chris Inman, Programme Director on the MSc Advanced Practice and Advanced Health Care at Birmingham City University, said: “Yana was an exemplary student. As a critical thinker she was always prepared to challenge dated practice and seek the best evidence to maximise the chance of women receiving the highest standards of care. She attended and contributed to all teaching sessions achieving a commendation for her research dissertation. The results of her research project contributed towards Department of Health midwifery standards of care for newborn babies. Furthermore the successful completion of course led to her promotion as a Consultant Midwife at one of London’s leading hospitals.
“Yana has had many personal obstacles relating to her own health and family challenges. These have been positively managed, with humanity and when possible with humour, together with her career and her professional ambition to improve the wellbeing of childbearing women. To this end she has extended her energies globally to contribute towards the development of a Midwifery Journal for Africa.’’
During her career, the clinical aspects of her work have stimulated her research interests and in 2001 Yana was the first midwife to be awarded a Mary Seacole Fellowship to investigate the maternity experiences of non-English-speaking Pakistani women. Throughout her career Yana has been committed to a safe and effective health service, founded on the belief that everyone in need of healthcare services should be assured that those services will be of the highest standard of safety and quality, based on the best available clinical evidence. In 2004, Yana co-founded the Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) national clinical group, a national charity dedicated to improving care and raising awareness of the practice in the UK.
Yana has had a varied career working as a hospital and community midwife, then becoming a research fellow at the Royal College of Nursing, before returning to clinical practice as a Consultant Midwife in Public Health at University College London Hospital in 2004. Yana has produced over 30 publications and edited three books. She is regularly asked to contribute at both national and international conferences.
In 2011 Yana became the first midwife to be awarded a National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) fellowship and was recognised with an OBE in the New Year’s Honours List for services to Nursing and Midwifery.
Yana will receive the honorary doctorate award on Monday 20th February at the Awards Congregation ceremony which will celebrate the work and achievements of students graduating from the University’s Faculty of Health.