Jo Divers

Jo has a decade of experience in senior leadership roles within the IT industry prior to moving into healthcare in 2010. She has taught within the NHS directly for both patients and staff as well as privately and within higher education in addition to clinical roles as a midwife and specialist community public health nurse. She has been involved in teaching and assessment in all areas of the midwifery curriculum at the university and in the development of curricula for a range of undergraduate and postgraduate health programmes across nursing, midwifery and allied health fields. Jo has a particular interest in teaching on contemporary subjects within the midwifery public health arena and as Associate Dean is leading on work to support student success and wellbeing by better understanding and facilitating student belonging. Jo works for the QAA on behalf of the nursing and midwifery regulator (NMC) to provide quality assurance reviews of NMC regulated programmes across the UK higher education sector.

Jo's interests include nutrition during pregnancy, nursing and midwifery higher education workforce, student belonging in higher education and feminist approaches to practice reflection; the latter forms the focus of ongoing doctoral work.

Conference Presentations:

Atenas, J, Copping, M. & Divers, J (2023). Co-creating an Inclusive Teaching Framework. Annual Learning & Teaching Conference, Suffolk. (Workshop)

Buck, E. & Divers, J. (2024a) Building Sustainable Belonging: Inclusive approaches to Block design and delivery to foster wellbeing and belonging in and across student and staff communities. International Block & Intensive Learning & Teaching Association, Melbourne, Australia. (Workshop).

Buck, E. & Divers, J. (2024b) Using the Academic Framework to Maximise the Opportunities of Block Teaching. International Block & Intensive Learning & Teaching Association (IBILTA), Melbourne, Australia. (Poster presentation).

Divers, J. (2023). Inclusive Learning & Teaching; Supporting apprentices with learning differences. UoS Apprenticeship Learning & Teaching Conference, Suffolk. (Oral presentation).

Divers, J. (2024). Building Belonging for Healthcare Students. RePAIR/NHS England Supporting Healthcare Students, Suffolk. (Oral presentation).

Divers, J. (2024). Experiences of the nursing and midwifery higher education workforce. University of Essex Staff/Student Research Conference, Colchester, UK. (Poster presentation).

Divers, J. (2024). Women in Higher Education; A Case of Nurses and Midwives. Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Conference, 2024, Seville, Spain. (Oral presentation).

Divers, J. & Huggins, C. (2024). Getting up and running with ‘block’: Considerations for how to operationalise a move to block teaching and learning. Advance-HE Teaching & Learning Conference, Nottingham, UK. (Oral presentation).

Recent Publications:

The Midwifery Higher Education Series explores the current landscape and challenges in educating the future midwifery workforce, particularly those that pertain to the HE workforce itself:

Chenery-Morris, S. and Divers, J. (2024a) ‘Midwifery higher education: who are we and who do we teach?’, British Journal of Midwifery, 32(1), pp. 32–37. Available at: https://doi.org/10.12968/bjom.2024.32.1.32.

Chenery-Morris, S. and Divers, J. (2024b) ‘The diversity debate: is midwifery higher education addressing the challenges of systemic racism?’, British Journal of Midwifery, 32(7), pp. 380–386. Available at: https://doi.org/10.12968/bjom.2024.32.7.380.

Divers, J. and Chenery-Morris, S. (2024a) ‘The gender debate: is midwifery education “women’s work”?’, British Journal of Midwifery, 32(4), pp. 202–207. Available at: https://doi.org/10.12968/bjom.2024.32.4.202.

Divers, J. and Chenery-Morris, S. (2024b) ‘The pay and conditions debate: the reality of the working environment in midwifery higher education’, British Journal of Midwifery, 32(9), pp. 500–504. Available at: https://doi.org/10.12968/bjom.2024.0045.

Divers, J. and Chenery-Morris, S. (in press) ‘The practice debate: are midwifery educators and midwives in practice working together to support the education of the future workforce?’, British Journal of Midwifery.

 

The Exploring Food Guidance series comprises six-articles examining how evidence has informed clinical guidelines and revealing where guidance is lacking or conflicting and suggesting how this might influence midwifery practice.  

Chenery-Morris, S. and Divers, J. (2022) ‘Exploring Food Guidance 6. Food Supplementation in Pregnancy and Beyond: Advice, Physiology and Evidence’, All4Maternity, 25(07), pp. 26–30. Available at: https://www.all4maternity.com/exploring-food-guidance-6-food-supplementation-in-pregnancy-and-beyond-advice-physiology-and-evidence .

Chenery-Morris, S. and Divers, J. (2022) ‘Exploring Food Guidance 5. Alcohol in Pregnancy and Beyond: Advice, Physiology and Evidence’, All4Maternity, 25(05), pp. 25–29. Available at: https://www.all4maternity.com/exploring-food-guidance-5-alcohol-in-pregnancy-and-beyond-advice-physiology-and-evidence .

Chenery-Morris, S. and Divers, J. (2022) ‘Exploring Food Guidance 4. Eggs in Pregnancy: Advice, Physiology and Evidence’, All4Maternity, 25(03), pp. 26–29. Available at: https://www.all4maternity.com/exploring-food-guidance-4-eggs-in-pregnancy-advice-physiology-and-evidence 

Chenery-Morris, S. and Divers, J. (2022) ‘Exploring Food Guidance 3. Meat And Fish in Pregnancy: Advice, Physiology And Evidence’, All4Maternity, 25(01), pp. 24–29. Available at: https://www.all4maternity.com/exploring-food-guidance-3-meat-and-fish-in-pregnancy-advice-physiology-and-evidence 

Chenery-Morris, S. and Divers, J. (2021) ‘Exploring Food Guidance 2. Dairy in Pregnancy: Advice, Physiology and Evidence’, The Practising Midwife, 24(10), pp. 26–30. Available at: https://www.all4maternity.com/exploring-food-guidance-2-dairy-in-pregnancy-advice-physiology-and-evidence /

Chenery-Morris, S. and Divers, J. (2021) ‘Exploring Food Guidance 1. Caffeine Consumption: Advice, Physiology and Evidence’, The Practising Midwife, 24(8), pp. 25–29. Available at: https://www.all4maternity.com/exploring-food-guidance-1-caffeine-consumption-advice-physiology-and-evidence/

Barlow, J. (2020) ‘Supporting vegans through pregnancy and lactation’, British Journal of Midwifery, 28(9), pp. 644–650. Available at: https://doi.org/10.12968/bjom.2020.28.9.644