Florence Nightingale Fellows

Alison Richardson

Professor of Cancer Nursing and End of Life Care, University of Southampton and University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust

Alison Richardson  trained to be a cancer nurse at the Royal Marsden Hospital. Since then she has continuously specialised in cancer and end of life care.

Her particular areas of interest are understanding and then improving the experiences of those affected by cancer and developing nurse-led responses to the issues and problems people confront in their everyday lives. She is recognised internationally for her research on fatigue in those affected by cancer, and more generally on the supportive care needs of cancer survivors. She leads a programme of work directed at discovering, testing and evaluating the introduction of novel forms of care and support to enhance the management of people affected by cancer. Alison is author of over 130 peer-reviewed scientific publications and is Principal Investigator or co-investigator on various research programmes with a grant income in excess of £10 million since 2005. She was the founding editor of the European Journal of Oncology Nursing.

Paula Simpson

Deputy Director of Nursing, Wirral Community NHS Trust

A Senior Nurse, Paula is educated to Master’s level with a professional background in health visiting and integrated child health provision. Over a 21-year career, she has gained extensive and varied experience in a number of roles across health, local authority and third sector organisations.

Recent career history includes strategic leadership in quality, nursing, public health, commissioning and safeguarding.

Lorraine Szeremeta

Deputy Chief Nurse at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Lorraine qualified as a Registered Nurse in 1995. With a background in general medical, surgical and gynaecological nursing, she specialised in Acute Medicine, in which she has gained a broad portfolio of experience in clinical, leadership and management roles.

She has worked in a variety of senior roles in a number of trusts including posts at Sister level, including setting up and managing an acute admission unit, Lead Nurse for Emergency Access including Emergency Department and Acute Assessment Unit. She has also worked in a variety of general management roles within Medicine and has led on projects in relation to effective discharge planning, working with community services.

She has worked at Deputy Chief Nurse level in two different trusts and also held the role of interim Chief Nurse in a previous organisation, taking responsibility for patient experience, quality & safety and was the designated Director for infection prevention and control 

Lorraine has an MSc in Evidence Based Research and has a strong interest in education and practice development.

Sarah O’Brien

Deputy Director of Nursing/Visiting Professor of Nursing at St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

Sarah is a senior nurse leader with an excellent record initiating and implementing change, producing strategy, managing people and driving the governance agenda.  She is passionate about nursing and improving patient outcomes and has the strength of leadership, vision and clarity of thought required to drive through the necessary innovations in quality improvement, governance and nursing practice to meet the challenges of the current NHS. 

From 2002-2013, she was a Diabetes Nurse Consultant. In this role she was a visible and recognised nurse leader and chaired the RCN Diabetes Nursing Forum, gaining a PhD and presented research at national and international diabetes meetings. Sarah has extensive experience of partnership working and following rigorous selection processes has had leadership training and coaching from the North West Leadership Academy and others. She successfully completed a NIHR Clinical Academic Training fellowship in 2014.