Meet the Team

Kathryn Smyth, QN

 Senior Lecturer in General Practice Nursing and Non-Medical Prescribing 

Since qualifying as a registered nurse, Kathryn has worked in a variety of posts across both primary and secondary care. Kathryn's professional interests lie in the community setting particularly general practice where she has worked as a practice nurse since 2003. After completing her specialist practitioner General Practice Nurse postgraduate diploma in 2007, she became a practice teacher and avid promoter of educational opportunities within practice nursing, focusing her master's dissertation on the subject area. Kathryn taught as an ad hoc lecturer on the general practice nurse foundation course before taking up a full-time teaching post at the University of Central Lancashire in 2016. She continues to work within the clinical environment.

Kathryn joined the RCN as a student nurse and became a member of the GPN forum committee in January 2018. She is a Queen's Nurse and an active member of her local GPN forum. Currently she is teaching and supporting Return to Practice GPN students and has developed educational opportunities for GPNs across her locality. Increasing placement opportunities for student nurses within general practice is high on her agenda and she is working to identify clinical environments that are keen to develop mentorship opportunities.

Kathryn has contributed to a chapter in the 3rd edition of The Textbook of Non-Medical Prescribing (Nuttall & Rutt-Howard, 2020) and has been published in several nursing journals. She is a member of the Association of General Practice Nurse Educators and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. 

Sarah Hall, QN

General Practice Nurse Strategic Lead

Sarah has had a long and varied career within a broad range of specialities such as Care of the Elderly, Haematology, Neonatal and Adult Intensive Care, undertaken in hospitals in London, Kent, Australia and Devon. She also has 22 years’ experience of working in primary care as a General Practice Nurse. 

Sarah has been an RCN Branch vice-chair, seconded to work on several NHSE projects relating to general practice nursing, as well as contributing to journal articles and reviews of national standards. Sarah leads an active GPN Leads Virtual Network across Devon and is an active member of the SW GPN Leads Group.

Sarah’s current role is General Practice Nurse Strategic Lead, Devon Integrated Care System (ICS). This role is embedded within the Integrated Care Board (ICB) and brings responsibility for ensuring the delivery of the Devon General Practice Nurse Strategy, as well as ensuring that there is visible nurse leadership and senior support for Practice Nursing and its ongoing development as a profession across Devon ICS.

Sarah is a Queens Nurse and has been a member of the RCN GPN Steering Committee member of the Royal College of Nursing GPN Forum since 2018. 

Ellen Nicholson, QN and Forum co-chair

National Safety and Learning Lead | General Practice

Ellen has been a registered nurse for a number of years and over that time have worked across primary, secondary and community care in a variety of roles ranging clinically from general practice nursing, advanced nurse practitioner, clinical nurse specialist, to educational roles as university course director and lecturer and training hub manager into nurse management. In 2023/4 she will be taking a secondment from her role as national safety and learning lead for general practice at NHS Resolution, looking at the themes and trends of claims data within general practice to work with the Royal Surrey NHS Trust and Surrey Heartlands Integrated Care System leading on the Integrated System discharge pathways. 

Ellen holds a BSc (Hons) Nurse Practitioner and an MA Advanced Practice and Independent prescribing qualification from Bournemouth University, as well as a BSc (Hons) from the Open University focusing on Political Science. She is also a local authority Borough Councillor and an NHS Trust Governor and excitingly am writing/editing a book with Elsevier in 2023.

Ellen's vision for the forum is that it continues to highlight nationally the important and integral role of general practice nursing to the health and wellbeing of our local communities and that it is able to articulate your concerns and successes when discussing strategy, policy and development to our stakeholders and the wider NHS. Ellen would also like to build a forum link nurse group to provide expert representatives across general practice settings to support the forum and drive the general practice nurse narrative forwards. 

Twitter Handle @EllzSummary  

Joyce Pickering, QN

RGN, QN, NMP, PGDip Clinical Education

Nurse Partner

Joyce has been a practice nurse for 20 years after completing an RCN 'Return to Nursing' course. She is currently a Nurse Partner in a busy town practice and the Devon Local Medical Committee Nurse Executive which provides personal and professional support for general practice nurses. This is a very exciting time in general practice and these roles offer opportunity to influence the shaping of general practice nursing.

Long Term Condition management is Joyce's main clinical focus. Her practice hosts student nurses from both Plymouth University and Exeter Universities. This has been extremely rewarding and they hope it will encourage student nurses to consider general practice nursing as a career choice.

She is currently completing her Independent Research Module for her MSc in Clinical Education and hopes to do more teaching at Exeter University.

Being involved in these different roles gives Joyce a balanced overview of life in General Practice, as well as the challenges and rewards that brings. Joyce will be working hard with the RCN to try and deliver better opportunities in both education and terms and conditions.

Penny Sibthorp

Practice Nurse Lead

Penny qualified as a nurse in 2001 and started her career in Medical Assessment and later Accident and Emergency at a busy district hospital. She then spent time working at a teaching hospital in Sydney, Australia before returning to the UK and securing a role as a District Nurse. Following a PCT restructuring, she undertook a six-month Practice Nurse Apprenticeship and moved into general practice where she has been for the last 15 years. Currently she leads and manages the nursing team across two sites in a large town centre practice in Suffolk. As a nurse with advanced skills, and as a nurse prescriber, she specialises in seeing patients with diabetes and respiratory conditions.

She sits on the committee of the local CCG Primary Care Nurse Forum and is a nurse representative for her local PCN where she ensures that the voice of the nursing team is fairly represented and highlights issues that may affect future service delivery. Penny is passionate about the role that nurses have to play within primary care and is keen to raise their profile both locally and nationally.