Dana Crawford Health Visiting Team Manager NHS Lothian In what way has the Queen’s Nurse programme made a difference to how you practice? Prior to commencing the Queen’s nurse development programme I found myself struggling to speak up and to have my voice heard. I was doubting my years of experience and knowledge and felt that the…
Health Visitor
Rhona McLeman
Rhona McLeman Health Visitor NHS Borders In what way has the Queen’s Nurse programme made a difference to how you practice? I came to the programme in the foothills of my leadership journey; lacking the confidence to step up and not seeing the potential others saw in me. Having been challenged, nourished, encouraged and enabled I now…
Tania Ferguson
Tania Ferguson Health Visitor and Team Lead NHS Borders What skills and expertise are needed to be a Health Visitor and Team lead? It is important first and foremost to see things from the heart and not the eyes. It is vital to be kind and compassionate with children, their families and team members alike.…
Emma Visca
Emma Visca Senior Health Visitor NHS Dumfries and Galloway I grew up in a council house scheme and I’ve always loved that sense of community. All your neighbours looked out for you, and it was like a big family, the sense of a diverse group pulling together to help one another. It was the nursing…
Debbie Wishart
Debbie Wishart Health Visitor NHS Forth Valley Based at the recently built Doune Health Centre, my post with NHS Forth Valley covers rural Stirlingshire. It’s an affluent, often remote community. There are a few villages but it’s mainly farms, with roughly 200 families. Visits often involve tricky journeys along remote, winding roads. I sometimes travel to these visits thinking the road has ended – but there will be a farm…
Keri Hollis
Keri Hollis Health Visitor Angus My primary role is making a difference in children’s’ lives to make sure they have the best possible start. The other part is supporting health visitors doing the job themselves. I have worked in health visiting for almost 20 years, most recently as a team leader with NHS Tayside based at Whitehills Health and Community Centre in Forfar. My job involves…
Nikki Forsyth
Nikki Forsyth Health Visitor Portlethen I work in the town of Portlethen which is close to the local city of Aberdeen. It is quite an affluent urban area with a high population of young children. As a health visitor, I work with the families of under-5s, delivering the universal pathway, monitoring and reviewing child development and…
Margaret-Ann Williamson
Margaret-Ann Williamson In her role as Health Visitor Team Lead for NHS Forth Valley covering Clackmannanshire, Margaret-Ann Williamson has been responsible for supporting staff through a period of change with the introduction of the Universal Health Visiting Pathway over the last few years. My Journey When I was in sixth year at school, deciding the…
Gemma MacDonald
Gemma MacDonald Gemma MacDonald was driven to work in maternal and infant healthcare following her own experience of having her first baby aged 19 and feeling that the support she needed wasn’t always available. When she became a mother for the second time a year later, the experience was very different. “I felt listened to,…
Clare Stiles
Clare Stiles Great Skuas are wheeling high in the sky over Burrafirth beach on the northernmost tip of Unst, itself the most northern of the Shetland Islands. Known locally as Bonxies, these large birds are fierce in their defence of their territory, and will maim and kill if they can. Watching them swoop down to…
