ILC Annual International Conference
13 & 14 June 2026
Oxford, UK
Venue: Said Business School
Theme: Future Proofing Person-centred Fundamental Care

The ILC Annual International Conference is the signature event for the ILC and brings together our global community of fundamental care experts and champions from practice, research, education and policy.

2026 Conference Theme: Future Proofing Person-centred Fundamental Care

Future Proofing Person-centred Fundamental Care explores how nurses, allied health and healthcare professionals and leaders can safeguard the core values of compassionate, relationship-based care in an era of rapid technological and societal change. As health systems grapple with innovations such as artificial intelligence, robotics, technology and digital innovations, critical questions arise about how person-centred fundamental care can be delivered safely, ethically, equitably, effectively and efficiently. The conference theme highlights the need to integrate new technologies with human expertise, ensuring that care remains grounded in relationships that promote dignity, empathy, and equity while adapting to future challenges. By drawing on evidence, leadership, and interdisciplinary collaboration, the conference will examine how to harness innovation to protect privacy, safety, and identity for the patient, sustain workforce wellbeing for staff, achieve organisational goals around efficiency and effectiveness and ultimately do this through strengthen the future of person-centred fundamental care.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Professor Alison Kitson – Australia

Professor Alison Kitson RN, BSc (Hons) DPhil, FRCN, FAAN, FAAHMS is an internationally recognised nursing leader, and translational research scientist. Her abiding passion continues to be around strengthening the evidence base for person-centred fundamental care, something that is essential to keep us healthy and well, and yet is poorly defined, understood and researched. The ILC was co-founded by Professor Kitson in 2008 to address this gap. She has served as the Chair of the ILC since 2023 when it became a formal membership organisation. Alison has a distinguished career as an executive and thought leader, academic and policy expert in nursing and health care in the UK and Australia.

Professor Mette Groenkjaer – Denmark

Mette Grønkjær is professor in clinical nursing at the Department of Clinical Medicine, AAU, and head of the Clinical Nursing Research Unit, Aalborg University Hospital. Mette is responsible for several research programs including ‘FoCUS’ & ‘ReCare’ and her research interests include clinical nursing research, public health, patient involvement, care improvement, healthcare organizations, and developing and testing complex interventions. In addition, Mette leads the PhD Program: Health Care, Health Promotion and Organizations at the Doctoral School in Medicine, Biomedical science and Technology, AAU.

Dr. Olga Yakusheva

Dr. Olga Yakusheva, PhD, MSE, FAAN is an internationally leading expert and thought leader on the economic value of nursing to healthcare systems. She is an economist and Professor at Johns Hopkins Nursing and an Economics Editor for the International Journal of Nursing Studies. Dr. Yakusheva’s work has been published in top economics and medical journals including Review of Economics and Statistics and JAMA. Dr. Yakusheva’s research team has led studies quantifying the value-added contribution of nurses to patient outcomes and to organizational financial outcomes, to improve nurse staffing, reduce burnout, and promote the economic value of nurses. Dr. Yakusheva is the lead author of the Nursing Human Value Capital Model and the Value-Informed Nursing Practice and Leadership Model.

Professor Helen Walthall – UK

Professor Helen Walthall is the Director of Nursing and Midwifery Research and Innovation, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Helen trained as a registered nurse at The London Hospital, specialising in cardiothoracic surgery and critical care. Following a PhD integrating cardiac physiology with post-surgical clinical presentation, she held senior academic roles at Oxford Brookes University, leading programme development, doctoral education, and research strategy. An experienced Chief and Principal Investigator, she currently holds an NIHR Senior Research Leadership Programme award (2023–2026).

Professor Jane Ball – UK

Jane is the Director of the RCN’s Institute of Nursing Excellence. Her career has centred on undertaking research to inform nursing workforce policy. She’s looked at how features of nurse staffing impact on care quality, patient outcomes and nurses themselves. The unifying aim of the many studies she has led has been to identify conditions needed to allow nurses to deliver excellent care and have satisfying and sustainable careers. She has worked at the Institute for Employment Studies, as Policy Adviser at the RCN, and as Deputy Director of the National Nursing Research Unit (King’s College London). For ten years she was based at the University of Southampton. She was made a Fellow of RCN in 2019.

DRAFT CONFERENCE PROGRAM

A Conference with Care – Our Commitment to a Green Conference

We’re proud to be hosting a greener conference, with sustainability at the heart of our planning.

• We encourage you to minimise air travel when getting to the conference, choose a greener option such as train travel or by electric vehicle (Alternative ways to travel https://www.rome2rio.com/)
• An emissions calculator can be found here – https://www.icao.int/environmental-protection/environmental-tools/icec
• The conference menu will be primarily plant based and vegetarian
• Please bring a reusable water-bottle, filtered water taps will be available
• We will be limiting printed materials such as programs and flyers

CPD Credits

Attendance at this conference may be eligible for CPD credits. Please check with your professional body or relevant authority to confirm how these hours can be applied to your individual requirements.

If you have any questions or require additional information, please don’t hesitate to contact us at [email protected]

Ticket T&Cs here