From healthcare support worker to Deputy Lieutenant: Filipino nurse Ariel Lañada's Oxford journey

A new profile traces how Dr Jose Ariel Lañada, a farmer's son from Iloilo who started in Oxford as a healthcare support worker in 2002, became an NHS nursing education leader, President of the Filipino Nurses Association UK and a Deputy Lieutenant of Oxfordshire.

A profile published on 28 October by The Global Filipino Magazine traces the career of Dr Jose Ariel Lañada, a Filipino nurse who started in Oxford as a healthcare support worker and now serves as a Deputy Lieutenant of Oxfordshire.

Lañada, a farmer's son from Dueñas in Iloilo, studied nursing at Central Philippine University as a government scholar. According to the profile, he had just been named Officer-in-Charge Chief Nurse of Iloilo Mission Hospital in September 2002 when he left for the United Kingdom.

Starting again

He arrived in Oxford that October and began work as a healthcare support worker at what was then the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust, now Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The magazine says he earned his UK registration in 2003, moved to adult intensive care in 2004 and later became Lead Nurse for Adult Diabetes.

Today he is Divisional Lead for Practice Development and Education at the trust. The Oxfordshire Lieutenancy says he holds an MSc in Nursing Education and recently completed his Doctor of Education at Oxford Brookes University, where he is an Associate Lecturer. He is also an Assistant Professor of Nursing at Central Philippine University.

Research and recognition

His research has looked at the experience of internationally educated nurses joining the workforce in England and at how Black, Asian and minority ethnic healthcare workers experienced the COVID-19 vaccination rollout. In 2021 he was named joint BAME Nurse of the Year at the National BAME Health and Care Awards.

The Oxfordshire Lieutenancy says Lañada has served as Deputy Lieutenant of Oxfordshire since 2022. He is part of the Lieutenancy team focused on Oxford and holds its General Health Brief for the county. The Lieutenancy's biography spells his surname "Lanada".

A voice for Filipino nurses

Lañada is President of the Filipino Nurses Association UK and Chair of the Filipino Community of Oxfordshire. The profile adds that in 2025 he was elected National Chair of the Alliance of International Nurses and Midwives Diasporas in the UK.

The magazine credits his parents, Anastacio and Luna, for the belief that education could change their children's lives, and frames his story as a message to the Filipino nurses who have followed him abroad: "Leaving home does not mean leaving yourself behind."

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