Justus A. Akinsanya

Professor Justus Akinbayo Akinsanya, B.Sc (Hons), Ph.D, RN, BTA, Cert ONC (Hons), RNT, FRCN, FWACN, FRSH, FRIPH (born 31 December 1936, Lagos, Nigeria - died 11 August 2005, London) was a nurse, human biologist, nurse educator and researcher.

He was born in Okun-Owa, Ijebu, Nigeria to Prince Isaac Akinsanya Ireshemowo and Chief Susanah Adefowoke Akinsanya (both deceased), the youngest of four children. He qualified in 1960 in general nursing, with a specialty in tuberculosis cases. In 1967 he did post-registration courses in orthopaedic, dermatological and psychiatric nursing. He entered the University of London where he obtained a B.Sc (Hons) in Human Biology followed by a Ph.D.

He was best known for the ‘Akinsanya model of bionursing’ (1985), which he defined as clinical nursing that uses in practice the principles of natural sciences such as biology.

He held positions as a teacher, administrator and researcher, including being a Lecturer, Institute of Management and Technology, Enugu (1976-77), before becoming Reader and later Professor and Head of the Health Care Research Unit at the Dorset Institute, now Bournemouth University (1985-89). He subsequently took up the post of Dean of the newly created Faculty of Health and Social Work at Anglia Polytechnic University (1989-96), where his wife, Cynthia, worked as a lecturer in pre-registration nursing.

He was made an Emeritus Professor on retirement in 1996, and then devoted his time to the charitable activities of Disability Croydon, Nurses Fund for Nurses and the Nigerian Council of Elders, and served as a local education authority (LEA) governor of two schools in Croydon.

He had been involved in the Nursing Council of Nigeria and he was a fellow of the UK Royal College of Nursing.

He died, aged 68, after contracting an infection at the International Council of Nurses conference in Taiwan earlier in the year.