RCN Students Committee

Suzanne Davies - Chair

Member of the Professional Nursing Committee and ex-officio member of the Students Committee, January 2022 - December 2023

Suzanne is currently a Second Year Adult Nursing Student at Edge Hill University, having started her course in January 2021. Suzanne has been involved in the healthcare sector since she volunteered with a local care home in Liverpool at 16 years of age. At 18, Suzanne moved to Swindon and started working in a care home as a carer and has always had the drive to achieve what she has put her mind to. Sadly, Suzanne suffered with a condition called Gestational Trophoblastic Disease after the birth of her daughter. However, she is raring to go to strive forward for an all inclusive nursing sector and is her year's Cohort Representative as well as starting her term as Student member of the RCN Professional Nursing Committee and ex-officio member of the RCN UK Students Committee Member, which is her proudest achievement.

Jade Hunt - Vice Chair

Member for South West, January 2022 - December 2023

Jade is studying Adult and Mental Health Nursing at the University of Plymouth. She is an RCN Student Ambassador and is passionate about the #FundOurFuture and #FairPayForNursing campaigns. Jade is a curator of the student nurse project @StNurseProject. She shares her nursing journey on Twitter @StNJadePUNC21. Prior to beginning her nursing career, Jade was a mathematics teacher in a local secondary school.

Sam Moffat

Student Member of RCN Council, January 2023 - December 2024

Sam is a 3rd year adult nursing student in Dundee. He has had placements in hospital wards, community hospitals, district nursing and outpatients. Sam has also worked as a carer for the past few years both in care homes and the community, something which opened his eyes to nursing when he left school at the start of the pandemic. Being a part of the 2020 cohort has been difficult for Sam and his fellow student nurses. Most of them have only ever yet seen nursing through the lens of Covid, through the face masks and the visors and the isolation. Sam has had placements where he was one of the only other human beings a patient saw, with not even their family allowed in to see them. Sam has had to isolate in cramped university halls bedrooms due to catching Covid on shift, and he has been separated from meeting his fellow students through online classes. Yet still, Sam is in love with nursing, the importance of a nurse's role and the privilege that it is to play such an important part in another human’s story. "We may not remember every patient we see, but they will remember us". 

In 2023 nurses have found their voices and are using them. Sam feels privileged to be in a position where he can advocate for all of his fellow nursing students, not just in Scotland, but in Wales, Northern Ireland and England. As the Student member of Council he wants to ensure all student nurses can be heard, and he looks forward to interacting with as many fellow students and staff as he can, to widen his knowledge of the issues effecting students. One of Sam's key commitments when running for Council was to advocate for free tuition for every student in the UK. Sam has the privilege of free education and a £10,000 a year bursary in Scotland, and it baffles him that nursing students aren't valued enough across the rest of the country to do the same. Sam feels that with the NHS in crisis we should enable more people to come take up this wonderful, challenging role.

The cost-of-living crisis is affecting every member of the RCN right now, and students are no exception. Sam wants to explore how his fellow students are weathering this storm and see how the RCN as an organisation can help. RCN Scotland has already released a survey to students to see how students are coping in Scotland, and Sam will be keen to reach out across the rest of the UK to see where students can be best supported. 

Of course, at this pivotal time for nursing as profession, news on strikes and industrial action is at the forefront of everyone’s minds, but Sam wants to ensure members that the voice of students is not being lost. Sam is first and foremost a student, and he advocates for student members what he would want for himself and for his younger sister who is in her first year of nursing. As the voice for nursing students on Council, Sam is so grateful to have the amazing Student Committee by his side who will work incredibly hard to ensure student voices are heard by Sam, and then heard by the entire RCN Council.

Emma Bird

Member for Eastern, January 2023 - December 2023 

Emma is in her second year at The University of Essex, studying BSc (Hons) Adult Nursing. Contemporaneously, she is an RCN Student Ambassador, Student Lead, and Co-Social Media lead for RCN Essex.

Emma also attends monthly meetings with the Digital Shared Decision Making Council, where she shares her own views and those of other students relating to digital nursing.

Emma is passionate about her degree and future career in nursing, where she is also the secretary for the University of Essex’s Nursing society. There, Emma assists with extra-curriculum activities, discussions, and miscellaneous activities to nursing students of all year groups. More so, she shares her nursing journey on her Instagram page @StudentNurseEmma_ and Twitter @StNEmma_.

Through her role on the Students Committee, Emma hopes to inspire, lead, and govern student voices across the Eastern region. She hopes to do this by showing her compassion and dedication towards the RCN and nursing communities, including all students, by showing a range of inclusivity, positivity, equality, and comprehensive attitudes. 

Lucy Parker

Member for East Midlands, January 2022 - December 2023

Lucy is a 3rd year Adult Nursing student at De Montfort University. She is a mature student who has previous experience in working care homes. Lucy is a student rep at her university and has been an RCN Student Ambassador since 2018. 

Trudi Gibson

Member for London, January 2023 - December 2024

Trudi is an MSc Adult nursing student from King’s College London. Initially training and working as a journalist, Trudi found a passion for healthcare and has worked on the clinical frontline for the last six years. In addition to her nursing studies, she is enrolled on the Principal’s Global Leadership Award and Associate of King’s College programme. When not on placement or studying, she can be found vaccinating or working in a central London A&E. During her time on the committee, she hopes to be an advocate for her peers by increasing awareness of the Fund Our Future campaign.

Vacant

Daniel Cook

Member for Northern, September 2022 - December 2023

Biography to follow.

Karen Donnelly

Member for Northern Ireland, March 2022 - December 2023

Karen is a Learning Disability Student Nurse with the Open University on the Future Nurse, Future Midwife Programme. She is an RCN Student Ambassador, having hosted online events for other student nurses and represents student members on the RCN's Forums Governance Group. Karen is also a curator for the @RCNStudents Twitter account, where she educates and supports other nursing students from across the UK and in her local area.

Michael Mcmurtry

Member for Northern Ireland, January 2023 - December 2024

Michael is a mental health nursing student from Queens' University Belfast. Prior to this, he spent 12 years in the armed forces before deciding to retrain as a MH nurse after losing a parent to suicide. Michael is also the president of the nursing society at Queens' and a Student Ambassador for the RCN. Outside of university, Michael has a keen interest in politics and is passionate about working with children and young people struggling with their mental health. He aspires to work in CAMHS once qualified.

Chloe Jackson

Member for Scotland, April 2022 - December 2023

Chloe is a Stage 3 student nurse, undertaking the Dual Honours nursing programme in Adult and Children and Young Peoples Nursing at Robert Gordon University, in Aberdeen. Prior to undertaking nursing, Chloe successfully completed a BSc in International Hospitality Management and an MSc in Digital Marketing at Robert Gordon University. She has been an active fundraiser from the age of 5 and continues to accomplish innovative fundraising ideas. Chloe is extremely passionate about empowering the student voice and making a difference to the student nurse experience, so much so that she enjoys blogging about her own student nurse experience via her blog @ChloJackonHerMac and interviewing various nursing professionals and leaders via her nursing podcast @chlojacksnursingjourneypodcast. Through her role within the Students Committee, Chloe intends to embrace the opportunity by bringing compassion, drive, and innovation to promote inclusion and empower the student voice across Scotland, as well as enhancing her leadership skills within nursing.

Lou Hyett-Collins

Member for Scotland, January 2023 - December 2024

Lou is a second year adult nursing student at The University of the Highlands and Islands in Inverness. A mature student, she pursued a career change to nursing after a 20 year career as an English and Sociology teacher in Wales, Devon and Cornwall. She has been Student Voice Representative for her cohort since 2021, an RCN Voting Volunteer and RCN Student Ambassador. She is also a student member of the Nursing Standard Editorial Board. Passionate about improving nurse education and mature and LGBTQ+ student experiences, she aims to use her time on the committee to encourage student engagement within the RCN. Additionally, she hopes to put her experience as an educational leader to good use. Upon qualifying she aspires to work in community nursing and ultimately pursue a role in nurse education.

Natasha Evans

Member for South East, January 2023 - December 2024

Natasha is a second year paediatric nursing student at the University of Winchester, where she is also the Deputy Chair of the Student Staff Liaison Committee (SSLC). She is a course champion, has been an RCN Student Ambassador since 2022 and sits on the Florence Nightingale Foundation student council for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. She is hoping to use these platforms to motivate and engage the student voice to make lasting change for future nurses.

Carlie Andrews

Member for Wales, September 2022 - December 2023

Carlie is a Year 3 Student Adult Nurse undertaking her degree at Swansea University. Beginning her degree in September 2020, Carlie volunteered as an RCN Student Ambassador and an Adult Nursing Student Representative for her S20 cohort. She has experience attending RCN Student Ambassador committee meetings and college and university-level boards of studies and learning and teaching discussions. Carlie raises student concerns to university staff members, believing the student's voice is essential. She has promoted the RCN heavily in academic and clinical nursing practice by visiting wards and encouraging students to sign up to be ambassadors. As a student ambassador, she has helped students by sign-posting them with information with her compassionate nature, excellent communication and team working skills. 
 
Carlie has been involved in the Fair Pay For Nursing and Vote for Industrial Action Campaigns and hopes to attend more face-to-face conferences and meetings. Carlie hopes to continue her involvement in these campaigns as she sees the importance of staff retention on patient safety and the future of nursing. Her participation in these campaigns has enhanced her skills and knowledge of nursing and the improvements that benefit all.
 
Before and during her nursing studies, Carlie worked as a healthcare support worker and trained as an Emergency Department Assistant, with clinical experience in emergencies. She has seen first-hand the struggles qualified and non-qualified nursing staff face daily. The lack of morale is worrying, and the treatment of students in clinical practice areas within Wales is something Carlie has always been concerned about and raised to the university. She has experience developing quality improvement questionnaires to gain evidence of student dissatisfaction with unfair markings. The university received the evidence positively, which led to the development of Task & Finish groups to improve academic marking, ensuring parity. 
 
Carlie hopes to continue to make a positive change to the way nursing is taught in universities and improve the student experience. Through her contribution, she hopes to enhance the future of nursing.

Mike Palmer

Member for Wales, January 2023 - December 2024

Mike is a first year Student Mental Health Nurse studying at Swansea University in Wales, beginning his degree in March 2022. He is a RCN Student Ambassador and the Mental Health Student Representative for the Swansea University March Cohort which has provided him with invaluable experience relating to this role. He is also a student member of Sigma Nursing international.  

Mike has previously studied to degree level and currently works as a Bank HCSW within Hywel Dda. He is looking to develop his practical psychological skills, understanding, knowledge and experience across all specialities within nursing. He is interested in writing and has been published three times with Student Voice articles within Mental Health Nursing magazine. Mike is looking to continue to develop his leadership skills by applying for the Swansea University Leadership Academy and the Council of Deans Student Leadership Progamme this year. He feels that Nursing and medicine are endlessly fascinating subjects and a continuous journey of learning and self-improvement.   
 
Mike is a confident, fun, creative, persuasive person who has no problem challenging rationales and logics at any level. He is a critical, free thinker, has developed good communication skills and is happy to talk to people at all levels within organisations. As a person living with chronic nerve pain, Mike’s condition has also helped him to develop strong understanding, emotional intelligence, empathy and compassion skills with patients, nurses, and other students through lived experience. Mike is passionate about raising the standards of nursing training within the UK so that it can develop world leading training and support for nurses. During his time on the Student Committee, he hopes to work towards making positive changes for fellow nursing students across the UK. He also hopes to assist the RCN in developing more respect at a government level for the vital role that nurses play within the NHS.

Mike is a strong advocate for more independent nurse led practice, someone who is focused and driven to become the best healthcare practitioner he can be and is looking forward to the challenge of being part of the Student Committee which will enable him to connect and build further relationships with other students, RCN members, and further develop his leadership and advocacy skills. 

Emma Stowe

Member for West Midlands

Emma is an adult nursing student at The University of Worcester, having started her training in September 2021. She is passionate about speaking up and making positive change and wants to ensure that student nurses are represented and have a voice during these challenging times. Emma also acts as a course rep for her cohort at university, ensuring that senior members of staff listen to student feedback. 

Emma is originally from Birmingham and moved to Worcester for work related reasons a few years ago. After making the decision to leave her job to start her training, she opted to remain in her new city but is still a proud Brummie and is honoured to be representing the student nurses in the West Midlands.

A mature student, this is not the first time that Emma has embarked on university education. She also achieved a law degree in 2014 and then had a career in substance misuse before starting her nurse training.

Emma regularly does bank shifts in the NHS as a HCA during her breaks from placement, so feels that she has a good understanding of the issues staff and students are facing at the moment.

Ben Allen

Member for Yorkshire & the Humber, January 2023 - December 2024

Biography to follow.

Alisha Brown

Member of the Trade Union Committee and ex-officio member of the Students Committee, January 2022 - December 2023

Alisha is an Adult and Mental Health Nursing student, and has been an RCN Student Ambassador since 2020. Through social media, she has found her voice and passion for activism, using her creativity to get involved with the RCN’s campaigns. Alisha aims to empower student members to be more active within the RCN and increase member engagement. 

Alisha received the commendation for the RCN's Student Ambassador of the Year award in 2021.