Leading Sustainability in Health and Social Care
Contributor bios
Rose Gallagher
Professional Lead in Sustainability and IPC
Rose provides strategic leadership and specialist professional advice to the Royal College, its members and key stakeholders across the UK on Infection Prevention and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and the implications for Nurses and Nursing. For the past two years she has led the RCN response to the pandemic supporting RCN members and four UK country leads during this period. Rose was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s 90th Birthdays Honours list for services to Infection Prevention and Control in her role at the Royal College.
Her portfolio also includes sustainability, and she leads the College’s professional nursing activity on this, in particular the nursing contribution to environmental sustainability, and is an Executive member of the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change. She has successfully led the RCN Glove Awareness Week and Small Changes Big Differences campaign focusing on procurement and use of consumables to influence sustainability in health and care delivery. She has most recently led the development of the new RCN Leading Sustainability in Health and Social Care education programme.
Catherine Swan
Professional Lead in Education (Policy and Practice)
Catherine Swan is a registered nurse and midwife with over thirty-five years of nursing experience. She has work across the UK and abroad specialising in neonatal transport/retrieval nursing, obtaining her BSc in neonatal studies and her Advanced Neonatal Nurse Practitioner qualification. She is passionate about professional education and development and has obtained her PG (cert) in Higher Education and MSc in Advanced Practice (Neonatal and Applied Education). She regularly lectured at the West of Scotland University Glasgow, and Edinburgh Napier University. Catherine worked as a Nurse Consultant for the neonatal transport service in Scotland (ScotSTAR), her role included lead transport clinician, neonatal transport educator, simulation instructor, independent nurse prescriber, regularly teaching on internal and external neonatal stabilisation and resuscitation courses. Following early retirement, she now works part-time for the RCN as Professional lead in Education (Policy and Practice).
Catherine is passionate about continued education in nursing and the professional development, growth and future innovation of the nursing profession.
Karen Naya
Consultant in demonstrating value and economic assessment, Coach
I'm expert in demonstrating value, and run masterclasses and workshops in economic assessment.
I give people knowledge, practical skills and confidence to understand the value of their services and communicate this to others. With it, they’ve transformed local care and grown as leaders. Together, we’ve identified millions of pounds worth of impact and benefit across health, social care and other networks.
Working with the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), Queen’s Nursing Institute, NHS Improvement and other partners, I’ve delivered tailored masterclasses and workshops to hundreds of clinicians, managers, leaders and policy-makers.
As a Consultant to the RCN, Burdett Trust for Nursing and others, I’ve coached well-over 200 clinicians, to deliver proposals and projects that support investment and service improvement. Their case-studies are a valuable evidence-base to inform and inspire others.
I have over 14 years of national strategic experience across the Audit Commission, Care Quality Commission, Nursing and Midwifery Council and Legal Services Board.
I love to work in person and on-line, using a warm, interactive approach and proven methods that help others shine.
Dr Deborah Watkins Clinical Supervisor, Counsellor and Wellbeing Consultant
Deborah Watkins is an accomplished mental health professional with a background in nursing, education, leadership and health promotion.
She currently works as an integrative psychotherapeutic counsellor, for children, young people and adults. She is also a supervisor for individuals and organisations including the RCN and Oxleas NHS Trust. She has developed an employee wellbeing service in the Diocese of Rochester, where she coordinates the counselling network and delivers wellbeing training and support. She is the RCN Expert Representative for Spirituality and Wellbeing. Deborah is a registered nurse, qualified higher education teacher, accredited counsellor and qualified supervisor, committed to person centred approaches in her work with individuals, teams and organisations. Her doctoral thesis is a narrative study of relational spirituality in encounters between mental health nurses and women recovering from mental health challenges.
Deborah is committed to collaborative working in the development of safe, restorative spaces that enhance wellbeing, and growth.
Clare Nash Head of Clinical Products Management at
Sandwell & West Birmingham NHS Trust
Clare Nash is a registered nurse, and Head of Clinical Products Management for the Black Country Alliance - Sandwell and West Birmingham and Dudley Group of Hospitals Trusts.
She is a member of the NHS England and Improvement Sustainable Procurement Group, chairs the Black Country and West Birmingham ICS Greener Care group, and works with Royal College of Nursing to support clinicians in delivering greener healthcare. She has recently authored a paper entitled “Time to act: what nurses can do to reduce the environmental burden of PPE” and is passionate about sharing the small changes nursing and healthcare staff can make to reduce the NHS carbon footprint.
She has been a clinical procurement nurse specialist for 6 years, and is passionate about using this role to improve the sustainability of health and social care.
Dinah Gould Professor of Nursing
Dinah Gould is a registered nurse with a long-standing interest in infection prevention and evidence-based practice. Her areas of research include hand hygiene, use of personal protective equipment and more recently aseptic technique. Dinah has an honorary chair at London, City University, works freelance and is an independent consultant for the RCN. She teaches evidencebased practice to nurses at Roehampton University and Brunel University and is currently undertaking a project to generate clinical standards and competencies in aseptic technique for nurses. This work is being undertaken in conjunction with the RCN and colleagues at Cardiff University and Kings College, London.
Jennifer Blake
Cardiac Cath Lab nurse
I am a Cardiac Cath Lab nurse at Ninewells Hospital in NHS Tayside. I qualified in June 2021 and became involved with the RCN and sustainable healthcare through my degree. My background prior to nursing, is in wildlife biology, and I’ve always had a passion for nature, the outdoors and health and an interest in climate change. I am keen to combine these interests and am strong in my conviction that peoples and planetary health are interlinked and reliant on each other. As a student at Glasgow Caledonian University, I realised the huge impact that healthcare has on the environment as well as the impacts of climate change on our public health. As nurses, I believe we could have a great influence in responding to these challenges and I enjoy combining nursing, environmental awareness and sustainability in my professional and personal life. I believe that big changes can stem from small steps, conversations and advocacy and am excited for this time for nurses to innovate, collaborate and lead in the championing of sustainable healthcare.
Rhea Conn Sustainability champion
I qualified in 2009 and started my career in Critical Care. I became a sustainability champion for the trust in 2010 and my first project was to encourage my colleagues to bring in a reusable cup instead of using the polystyrene ones supplied. I have continued to question the way we do things and look for more sustainable solutions, most recently, completing a carbon foot-printing course so I have a tool for measuring progress. I am now a Senior Sister and working on sustainability projects has really helped me to develop my leadership skills in change management, project management, communication and quality improvement. I firmly believe that the climate emergency is a health emergency and as nurses we have a responsibility to our patients and service users to support a healthy environment and that starts with a healthy planet.
Richard Smith
Chair of the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change
Richard Smith is chair of the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change, the Point of Care Foundation, which promotes compassionate, dignified care, and Patients Know Best (a company that brings all medical and social care records together in one place under the control of patients), and a cochair of the Lancet Commission on the Value of Death.
Until November 2018 he was chair of the board of trustees of icddr,b (formerly the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh).
From 1979 to 2004 he worked at the BMJ and was the editor of the journal and chief executive of the BMJ Publishing Group from 1991 until he left. He continues to blog for the BMJ and to publish regularly.
He is an adjunct professor at Imperial College Institute of Global Health Innovation. Having qualified in medicine in Edinburgh, Smith worked in hospitals in Scotland and New Zealand before joining the BMJ. He also worked for six years as a television doctor with the BBC and TV-AM and has a degree in management science from the Stanford Business School.
Rosamund Adoo Kissi-Debrah
Executive Direct of the Ella Roberta
Family Foundation
The Ella Roberta Family Foundation was set up after the death of Rosamund’s beloved daughter in 2013 from a rare and severe form of asthma. The aim of the Foundation is to improve the lives of children affected by asthma in South East London by raising awareness of asthma, campaigning for better treatment of asthma and campaigning for clean air as it is everyone’s fundamental right to breathe clean air.
Rupert Read Former spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion
Rupert Read is Co-Director of the Climate Majority Project and Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of East Anglia. He is the author of several books, including This Civilisation is Finished, Parents for a Future, Why Climate Breakdown Matters and Do you want to know the truth? The surprising rewards of climate honesty.
Sam Davison Clinical Procurement Specialist Nurse
Sam is a self-confessed inquisitive and questioning nurse content to challenge current practice to enable easier ward based clinical decision making for nurses and health care professionals, consistently working to improve the outcomes of the patient.
Sam’s Yorkshire sustainability roots run as deep as his pockets with a “Reduce Reuse and Recycle” approach to life. Observing the NHS become more and more dependent on single use plastics and huge amounts of packaging Sam is trying to subtly change how people think and empower them to challenge waste whilst maintain the high standards expected in the NHS.
During 2020 he became assigned COVID 19 fit testing lead before joining the procurement team in 2021 as the trusts first Clinical procurement specialist nurse.
This role is enabling all specialities to have a voice to support the products they use, improve outcomes, deliver cost effective and sustainable options, exploring new ways of working as well as promoting standardisation and the NHS Greener plan where appropriate.
