Current President & Chair of Membership Involvement Committee - Dr Liz Westcott, NMC Test Competence assessor Oxford Brookes University, Coach, Mentor
Email: westcottej@brookes.ac.uk
Twitter: @lwestcott1
Liz has been a member of Sigma since 2014. She is also an Executive Coach and Coaching Supervisor and is a member of the International Centre for Coaching and Mentoring Studies (ICCMAS).
Lead and Vice President for the Northern Hub - Michelle Croston, Manchester Metropolitan University
Email: croston@mmu.ac.uk
Twitter: @michelleCrosto2
LinkedIn: Michelle Croston
Dr Michelle Croston is an Associate Professor of Nursing at the University of Nottingham. She has a clinical background in HIV care working at national and international level to improve outcomes for people living with HIV. She holds a fellowship with European Society of Person Centered Healthcare (ESPCH). Michelle has extensive post graduate qualifications in mental health and psychological trauma, alongside her role as an educator she is a qualified Mental Health First Aid Instructor and Crisis Counsellor for a Mental Health charity that specialises in working with healthcare workers. Michelle is passionate about develop teaching and learning strategies to prevent compassion fatigue and secondary trauma. Throughout her career Michelle has been involved in and led on a number of quality improvement projects at a national and international level.
Lead and Vice President for the Midlands Hub - Raluca Oaten, ICU Nurse, Oxford University NHS Foundation Trust
Email: ralucaoaten@gmail.com
Twitter: @RalucaOaten
Raluca is a registered nurse who works within the Intensive Care Unit of the Oxford University Hospitals Trust and is an Associate Lecturer with Oxford Brookes University. She is the Sigma Phi Mu Chapter Lead and Vice President for the Midlands and aims to support Chapter members to best utilise Sigma to achieve their professional goal.Raluca is also part of the prestigious Global Mentorship Programme provided by Sigma and is currently being mentored by an extraordinarily inspiring Intensive Care Nurse based in New York City. Her commitment to the nursing profession has already seen her receive a number of prestigious nominations and awards including the Edith Cavell Star Award for her commitment to improving the patient experience. Her passion for research saw her develop a postgraduate research dissertation for her Masters programme – “The evaluation of a one-stop website for people with amputations – a usability study”) for which she was awarded an exceptional and unprecedented 100%. This project saw her recognised nationally and internationally having been awarded the Edith Cavell Star Award for her commitment to improving the patient experience, Leadership Digital and Innovation Award by the Council of Deans of Health, Oxford Brookes Social Entrepreneurship Award, finalist for the RCNi Award, and the Student Nursing Times Awards and Global Challenge. She has taken her passion for research further by starting her own Journal Club in the Intensive Care Unit, where she currently works.
Lead and Vice President for the London and Southern Hub - Dr Leslie Gelling, Bournemouth University
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Chair of the Communications Committee and Webmaster- Dr Kirsten Jack
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Dr Kirsten Jack is a registered nurse on the Nursing and Midwifery Council register and a member of the Royal College of Nursing. She currently holds the position of Reader/Associate Professor at Manchester Metropolitan University. Before commencing an academic career, Kirsten specialised in community/primary health care nursing, holding numerous roles in the North West of England, UK. Kirsten is a fellow of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (2019) and a HEA National Teaching Fellow (2014). She is also a Principal Fellow of the HEA. She is passionate about promoting meaningful learning experiences for healthcare students and her research focuses on creativity in teaching. She has published widely, specifically on the use of the arts in learning and teaching and innovative ways to support clinical education. Her research extends into social care and she has led several projects aimed at exploring and promoting education in care home settings. She currently leads interprofessional education in the Faculty of Health, Psychology and Social Care at Manchester Metropolitan University.
Chair of the Governance Committee - Lin Purandare, Retired Nurse Consultant / Lead Research Head & Head of Care
Email: lin.purandare@gmail.com
Twitter: @linpurandare
LinkedIn: Linda Purandare
Lin qualified as an Enrolled Nurse in 1975 and a registered nurse in 1977. After initially staffing on a busy surgical ward, she went to the Royal Marsden Hospital in London to learn about cancer. Staying on after the course, becoming a ward sister on the Leukaemia and Bone Marrow Transplant Unit. After a brief career break, during which she travelled and gave birth to two children, she returned to nursing. Taking a part-time role so she could also complete a B.Sc (Hons.) in Nursing. She completed several Master's modules and earned a Postgraduate Diploma in Cancer Care. She completed an Independent Nurse Prescribing Course in 2006, becoming one of the first nurses in the country to independently prescribe cancer chemotherapy, working a joint role as Nurse Consultant in Oncology and Lead Research Nurse. As Nurse Consultant in Oncology, Lin led a nursing service, designed and taught an Oncology course. As one of the first nurses in the country to independently prescribe chemotherapy, Lin encouraged others to follow and run nurse-led clinics. As Lead Research Nurse, Lin developed a Clinical Trials Directorate, as a unified team where they were able to develop the practice, attracting a large portfolio of seminal clinical trials. Lin is passionate about service development and encouraging and supporting colleagues to achieve their potential. After retiring from the NHS in 2015 she subsequently worked as Clinical Lead in a Dementia Care home, relishing the challenge of learning new skills. As Head of Care, Lin was responsible for the health and welfare of 42 people who were living with challenging behaviour caused by dementia. During this time, Lin introduced new roles such as Nurse Apprentices and Medicines Administrators, which reduced the incidents of drug errors. Lin was invited to join Phi Mu in 2014 and inducted in 2015. She has been Chair of the Governance committee since 2018.
Chair of the Leadership Succession Committee - Ashley Spriggs
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Chair of the Finance Committee - Dr Adriane A. de Savorgnani AB, MPH, DBA, RN, FACHE
Email: a.desavorgnani@gmail
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Treasurer - Paula Shepherd, Bournemouth University
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As a University Practice Learning Adviser within the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences at Bournemouth University, Paula's interprofessional role includes the support of students and practice in the provision of high quality placement experience and is currently completing a fellowship with Health Education England for the RePAIR I. P. (Reducing Pre-Registration Attrition and Improving Retention Implementation Project). Paula is also an academic adviser and lecturer for pre-registration students. Since qualifying as an adult nurse in 1986 Paula has had many opportunities to experience nursing in different fields and has worked in the USA as well as the UK private and national health system.
Dr Scammell is a Visiting Fellow in Nursing in the Department of Nursing Science at Bournemouth University, UK. She is a highly experienced nurse researcher, educator, manager and practitioner. As a practitioner she worked in medical oncology nursing settings for 10 years. Her career in nurse academia spans 30 years in roles including Director of Studies for undergraduate nursing, Faculty Head of Learning and Teaching, Professional Lead for adult and child nursing, and Director of the Nursing Long-Term Health (N4LTH) Research Centre.
Nursing and nursing scholarship are her passion as is evidenced by her career achievements in education, research and professional practice. She has a sustained and effective record of impact at a strategic level in relation to teaching and learning as is evidenced by her recognition in 2016 as a Principal Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/fellowship/principal-fellowship. Her work as a nurse academic has included research for the last 20 years and she has an established track record in the area of humanising care, leadership and nursing workforce development. An example of a recently completed funded study (Burdett Trust for Nursing) can be found here: https://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/projects/making-tracs-improve-nurse-retention. Currently she is engaged in research funded by Health Education England, investigating how Advanced Clinical Practitioners working with older people have adapted their role during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Her engagement with clinical practice is diverse; for example working with clinical service strategic leads as part of research teams; past governor for Yeovil Hospital National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust; former Trustee of the Poole Hospital-South Sudan Link Charity; Independent member of the national Mary Seacole Award Steering Group; part-time registered nurse supporting the COVID-19 vaccination programme; voluntary work as Chair of Verwood Dementia Friends Community Association.
Dr Scammell’s career to date (see: https://staffprofiles.bournemouth.ac.uk/display/jscammell) attests to her commitment to nursing excellence through scholarship, leadership and research and dovetails well with Sigma Nursing membership. She has authored almost 50 publications, including international conference presentations. She was a member of the Board of the England Honours Society for Nurses (2009-2011), and actively contributed to Bournemouth University’s application to become a Sigma chapter. Phi Mu Chapter was chartered in July 2011. She has served on the Chapter Board since then in various officer positions, including President (2016-2019). Phi Mu is the only Sigma Chapter in England. Hosted by BU, it has however (compared to Sigma norms) an unusual membership profile with members from all over the country (as well as located internationally), based in numerous academic and health service organisations. In addition in England, Sigma Nursing is not a well-known nursing organisation especially in 2011; its mission transfers quite easily to the UK context but it has required innovation and outstanding commitment to translate its vision, processes and goals for UK nurses.
Former President (2011- 2016) - Professor Elizabeth A Rosser,
Email: Erosser@bournemouth.ac.uk
Dr Elizabeth Rosser is Professor Emeritus at Bournemouth University having acted as Dean of Faculty (Health and Social Sciences) for the 18 months prior to retiring in August 2018. As a professional nurse with a midwifery qualification, Elizabeth was the first President of the Phi Mu Chapter (England) and completed 4 years as an elected member of Sigma’s Board of Directors from 2015-2019. At present she is an elected member of Sigma’s Leadership Succession Committee. Elizabeth feels passionately about leadership in nursing and set up the first Phi Mu Chapter leadership programme in January 2019, a one year programme, run annually. Having worked in Colombia, South America as a nurse/midwife and co-ordinated a Higher Education link with NE Brazil to introduce the new role of nurse-midwife, she has a particular interest in transcultural nursing. She also has a passion for research and publication and she is keen to support others in this endeavour. She firmly believes in developing and actively promoting the scholarship agenda for nursing.
Honorary President - Dame Professor Betty Kershaw, DBE, FRCN, OStJ,
Professor Betty Kershaw, DBE, FRCN, OStJ, retired in 2006 as Dean of Nursing and Midwifery at The University of Sheffield.
Betty holds visiting Professorships at Birmingham City and Manchester Metropolitan Universities. She was RCN President from 1994-1998 and CNO for St John Ambulance from 1998-2005. She was a member of the DH (England) Preceptorship Working Group and worked with the NMC on the new Pre-registration Nursing Curriculum. During her time as RCN Education Adviser (Congress 2007-Jan 2011) she was involved with the Advisory group working with Skills for Health on the Skills Passport. She was President of the England Honour Society – now named the Phi Mu Chapter (England) – for two years handing over to Professor Elizabeth Rosser of Bournemouth University in July last year. Betty has two Lifetime Achievement Awards; one from the UK the other from the USA. She is married with two sons and five grandchildren.