Rate My Professor Anna Foster

Anna Foster is a Lecturer (Teaching Scholar) in the School of Nursing within the Faculty of Health at Southern Cross University, a position she has held for 14 years. As a registered nurse and midwife, she possesses over two decades of experience in clinical practice and nursing education. Her clinical background includes intensive care nursing and surgical ward nursing in Queensland, Australia, and the United Kingdom, as well as midwifery. Prior to her return to Australia in 2012, Foster worked as a nurse educator with a large London-based trust. Since joining Southern Cross University, she has undertaken multiple roles, including placement coordinator, lecturer, unit assessor, and course coordinator for the Enrolled Nurse to Registered Nurse Pathway Program. Her teaching emphasizes surgical nursing, intensive care, the transition of enrolled nurses to registered nurse practice, and leading academic coordination of student professional placements. Most recently, she has focused on integrating planetary health concepts within nursing curricula, contributing to efforts in sustainable healthcare education.

Foster's academic qualifications include a Bachelor of Nursing from Southern Cross University, a Graduate Diploma in Midwifery from Queensland University of Technology, and a Master of Advanced Practice from Griffith University. She is currently undertaking doctoral research as a PhD candidate at the University of Technology Sydney, exploring planetary health, sustainability, climate change, and their implications for healthcare delivery and healthcare system resilience. Her research interests encompass sustainable healthcare, climate-resilient health systems, undergraduate healthcare student education, and preparing the future nursing workforce to address the health impacts of environmental change. An active member of the Planetary Health Collaborative for Nurses and Midwives, Foster has made scholarly contributions through co-authorship of the peer-reviewed article 'Achieving consensus on the essential knowledge and skills for new graduate nurses: A Delphi study,' published in the Journal of Advanced Nursing in 2024. She also contributed case studies, such as those on neurodiversity and adolescent pregnancy, to the open-access textbook 'Case Studies for Health, Research and Practice in Australia and New Zealand' in 2023. Her work aligns with UN Sustainable Development Goals related to health and sustainability.