Laura graduated from the University of Nottingham in 2010 with a diploma in Adult Nursing. She then 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 scholarship allowed her to visit 13 US shared governance hospitals in 12 states in three months. Here she gained great insight into the benefits of shared governance – a style of management not often used in the UK. On her return to Nottingham she was charged with designing and implementing a model of shared governance for NUH, one of the largest health systems in Europe. After 18 months of successful planning and implementation of the set-up phase of the model, Laura, who, by this time, had only been a nurse for four years, left this role to develop her leadership and clinical skills further.
She now 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 to this, she is studying parttime at the University of Nottingham for her masters in Advanced Nursing.
Laura sits on the Leadership Council at NUH and has an advisory role to support the development of shared governance in her hospital system.