Jenny Phillips

Jenny has been nursing for more than 50 years as a clinical nurse specialist in both the UK and NZ. Jenny has always had an unwavering desire since she was little to improve the quality of life for others, which drew her into the area of health. However, it was her work as a nursing sister in the UK RAF and her involvement in a pressure injury project at an NHS hospital that sparked her journey into the specialist area of wound care.

Soon after her move to New Zealand in the late 90s, Jenny began dedicating herself to the area of wound care education, not only training clinical staff but also introducing the first wound education course into New Zealand for postgraduate nurses at what was then Taranaki Polytechnic. She also worked as a clinical nurse specialist at Palmerston North Hospital, where she became New Zealand’s fourth Nurse Practitioner. Today, and since 2003, Jenny has worked as a senior professional clinician at Massey University where she has either introduced or managed both undergraduate and postgraduate papers in wound care, physiology and pathophysiology.

Beyond the classroom, Jenny works as an expert advisor to ACC and the Health & Disability Commission, reviewing and advising on complex cases involving wounds, which are often pressure injuries. She also is a member of the College of Nurses Aotearoa and life member of the New Zealand Wound Care Society. During her four-year position as president at New Zealand Wound Care Society, she initiated the first membership scholarships to assist professional education and attendance at global conferences. Over the last 20 years Jenny has presented at dozens of national and international healthcare conferences, including the The International Wound Conference in Toronto in 2008, and the bi-annual New Zealand Wound Care Society conferences.

She has authored a number of papers and documents including a published a book in 1997 called ‘Access to Clinical Education Pressure Ulcers – Churchill Livingstone’, and more recently, she co-authored an advisory document on wound bed preparation for the New Zealand Wound Care Society in 2020.

Jenny holds a Master of Arts (Nursing); BSc (Hons). And has a Nurse Practitioner status with the New Zealand Nursing Council of NZ.

Jenny says she is thrilled to be invited to contribute to ACEhub as a wound care educator as “it is essential to pass wound care knowledge onto the next generation of nurses which will improve quality of life for patients with wounds.”