All about Clare…
Clare is a mother of four, a wife to one. Hopefully, a friend to many. And now at long last a nurse. Her journey began in 1995 when she attended Oxford Brookes University to study paediatric nursing. Ill health meant she had to leave. What followed was a full and very successful career. But something was always missing.
In 2016, with the announcement that nursing bursaries in England were about to cease, she made the decision to walk out of a well-paid career and begin to study mental health nursing. Clare attended Sheffield Hallam University, where among other things she was course and departmental representative. Clare also represented the university on a trip to China. And was the recipient of Sheffield Hallam University’s Inspirational Student of the Year.
Clare is an active member of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN). In 2019, she served as the student member of the Trade Union Committee and ex-officio member of the RCN Students’ Committee. She was also awarded the RCN Student Ambassador of the Year 2020. Clare is also a former co-lead of the RCN’s Newly Registered Nurses project.
She began engaging with Twitter after being inspired as one of the inaugural Council of Deans’ 150 Leaders cohort. Subsequently, Clare curated and led the Student Nurse Project for the majority of her nursing education. She has been actively involved with empowering women projects through her long association with Girl Guiding.
Clare was shocked to discover her love for academia and graduated with a First-Class Honours degree. She has enrolled on a Masters in Perinatal Mental Health. Clare was also humbled to be the recipient of the Student Nursing Times Student Nurse of the Year (Mental Health) in 2020. She has ambitions to complete a PhD and to be a specialist Health Visitor.
Follow Clare on Twitter: www.twitter.com/MannersOfMarple
All about Craig…
With his mum being a nurse, healthcare was always a big part of Craig’s life. Originally he wanted to pursue a career in medicine, getting the required grades. However, Craig moved to London where he trained and worked as an actor for 12 years. Aged 30, he returned to Glasgow, where he made the career move into nursing. Before going to university, Craig went to Glasgow Clyde College. There he completed an HNC in Care and Administrative Practice, enabling him to articulate directly into the second year of his degree programme.
Craig graduated with a first-class BSc (Hons) Nursing Studies degree from Glasgow Caledonian University in August 2020 where he received the Ross Hall Prize for academic excellence and achievement upon graduation. Craig is currently undertaking a postgraduate qualification in integrating mental health and professional practice at the University of Dundee.
Craig is a Registered Nurse (Adult), working as a Senior Asylum-Seeker Health Nurse at the Asylum Health Bridging Team for Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership.
Craig’s openly documented lived experience of childhood internalised homophobia, mental health and addiction struggles, and resultant hospital detention in 2015 fuels him to ensure nobody feels “different” or unworthy. These core values define him as a person and a nurse, influencing his overarching aim to strive for equity of access, and equitable, holistic, inclusive treatment for all diverse, intersectional populations, creating socially just local, national and global healthcare systems. He sits on NHS Scotland’s Pride badge initiative working group.
In addition to equality, diversity and inclusion, Craig is interested in quality improvement and service development, global and public health policy, and leadership and management. He believes all health and social care professionals should be politically aware and engaged to enable advocacy for the communities we serve.
He sits on the RCN Nurses in Management and Leadership Forum’s steering committee. And was Scottish representative on the RCN Students’ Committee from 2018 to 2019, assuming the chair’s tenure in 2019. With Clare, he also helped establish the RCN Newly Registered Nurses Network as a working group member.
As a nursing student, Craig was a Student Nursing Times editor. He was also a member of the Scottish Government’s Country Specific Working Group for the Year of the Nurse and Midwife 2020. In 2018, @WeNurses included Craig in their list of #100OutstandingNurses, one of only three student nurses included. He was also honoured to be the Student Nursing Times’ Student Nurse of the Year (Adult) Award recipient in 2019.
Follow Craig on Twitter: www.twitter.com/CraigDavidson85
Retaining the Passion: 