Diabetes Forum - link nurses
Nurses with expertise and particular specialism in diabetes who further help support the forum and represent the RCN on diabetes
The RCN diabetes link nurses work with the RCN diabetes forum committee and other RCN activists and clinical specialists. They provide wider clinical expertise and specialism to help make sure nursing practice in diabetes care, nursing policy and research expertise is appropriately profiled.
Vicki Alabraba
Vicki has been a diabetes specialist nurse (DSN) since 2005 and has worked across both primary and secondary care specialities in Birmingham, Liverpool and now Leicester.
Her new current role is as an Education and Research Associate at Leicester Diabetes Centre which she started in June 2021. Prior to that Vicki worked as a community DSN for 6 years within an integrated diabetes service called Liverpool Diabetes Partnership. Here, she was lead nurse for the teams online communications and social media platforms. Liverpool Diabetes Partnership won a number of awards for improvements in diabetes care since the service was commissioned in 2015.
Vicki also works voluntarily as part of the DSN Forum UK management team and with the Diabetes 101 twitter team which was formed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Vicki has a keen interest in diabetes secondary to pancreatic damage, surgery and cancer and also new onset diabetes after transplantation (NODAT). She also has a keen interest in digital health and education and enjoys developing new digital educational material for both health care professionals and people living with diabetes.
Vicki is also working towards her MSc in Diabetes Practice at Swansea University. In 2020 Vicki was nominated for and won the Quality in Care (QiC) Diabetes Professional of the Year.
Charlotte Gordon
Forum Chair
Assistant Professor of Adult Nursing
MSc (Clin Res), PG Cert. (Ed), FHEA, Adv. Dip (Nurs), RN, BSc (Hons)
Following an initial grounding in biological sciences, Charlotte has been a registered nurse since 2003, working clinically across intensive care settings and then moving to focus on the management and delivery of clinical trials within the NHS. Charlotte has experience of working collaboratively across the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries both nationally and internationally in the
development of novel therapeutics for people living with Diabetes. Working with the North East and Cumbria Diabetes Research Network and at the UKCRF Clinical Research Facility, Newcastle afforded the opportunity to contribute to the UK Islet Cell transplant programme, longitudinal Diabetes risk studies and also the development of immunotherapies for people with Diabetes.
Currently in post as a senior lecturer in Adult Nursing at Northumbria University leading and providing high quality education and support to pre and post registration nursing students across a broad range of subject areas. Charlotte has also developed and leads the accredited prevention and management of Diabetes continuing professional development module, for post registration nurses at
Northumbria University and acts within the department as a Diabetes educator, linking with a variety of pre and post registration nursing programmes.
Charlotte actively researches and publishes within the Diabetes field and was awarded a Master of Clinical Research by the University of Newcastle in 2011. Her qualitative research project explored risk, knowledge and educational approaches in the non-diabetic offspring of people with type II diabetes. Charlotte is now working at doctoral level to investigate the biopsychosocial impact of wearable technologies for people living with type 1 diabetes. Charlotte maintains close links with clinical practice and is responsive to educational needs, believing passionately that all nurses should have
access to flexible, high quality educational resources for Diabetes education to enhance professional knowledge, deliver the highest standards of care and ensure patient safety."
Samantha Kelly
Diabetes Nurse Consultant for Merton & Wandsworth for Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust
Sam currently leads the Tier 3 (intermediate) Diabetes specialist community services for the London Boroughs of Merton & Wandsworth. The services have a multi-disciplinary team (Consultant, Diabetes Specialist Nurses (DSN), Dietitians & Podiatrists) who manage patients with Type 1 and 2 diabetes in both face to face & virtual clinics. Her service also provides dedicated clinical advisory time to GP surgeries. This is to meet with the Lead GP & Practice Nurses and to have virtual clinical case discussions of their priority patients. This also enables upskilling of their practice and partnership working in Tiers 1 & 2 (primary care/PCN level).
Structured group education is also delivered (DESMOND & DAFNE) in a variety of settings.
With experience in ward management, Care of the Older Person and General Medicine, Sam has worked in the NHS for 37 years. She has specialised in diabetes for the last 26 years.
Sam has obtained a Masters Degree in Diabetes, is an Independent Nurse Prescriber and a Queen’s Nurse.
