Laura Hailes is a registered nurse at Nottingham University Hospitals who designed and implemented one of the first shared governance models in the UK.

Laura graduated from the University of Nottingham in 2010 with a diploma in Adult Nursing. After graduating, she worked as an oncology nurse at Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) in the UK. NUH has nearly 2,000 beds and around 7,000 nursing staff.

In 2012, Laura won the Roosevelt Traveling Scholarship. This opportunity allowed her to visit 13 US shared governance hospitals in 12 states over three months. Through these visits, she gained great insight into the benefits of shared governance, a management style not often used in the UK. On her return to Nottingham, she took on the challenge of designing and implementing a shared governance model for NUH, one of the largest health systems in Europe. After 18 months of successful planning and implementation, Laura left this role to develop her leadership and clinical skills further. At that point, she had only been a nurse for four years.

Currently, she works fulltime as a Deputy Sister (a role similar to an assistant floor manager) on an acute ward dedicated to looking after ladies over the age of 65. In addition, she is studying parttime at the University of Nottingham for her masters in Advanced Nursing.

Laura also sits on the Leadership Council at NUH and serves in an advisory role to support the development of shared governance in her hospital system.