Diabetes Forum - link nurses

Vicki Alabraba

Vicki is a senior diabetes specialist nurse with a MSc in diabetes care. Vicki is a published author and a national speaker. She has been a DSN since 2005 and has worked across both primary and secondary care specialities in Birmingham, Liverpool and now Leicester.

Vicki currently has two roles; Education and Research Associate within the Eden education team at Leicester Diabetes Centre and DSN in general practice where she is diabetes lead for the practice.
Prior to relocating to the East Midlands, Vicki was a community DSN for a number of 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 is also one of four DSN Forum UK leadership committee members and is also a Primary care Diabetes Society committee member.

Vicki has a keen interest in type 2 diabetes in primary care, type 3c diabetes, early onset type 2 diabetes and the fast moving pace of diabetes technology. 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. 

In 2020 Vicki was nominated for and won the Quality in Care (QiC) Diabetes Professional of the Year.

Mariana Biscoito

Diabetes Specialist Nurse

Mariana has worked in the NHS for 9 years and have been a diabetes specialist nurse for the last 6 and a half years at the Royal Stoke Hospital, part of the University Hospitals of North Midlands. Prior to becoming a DSN, she has worked as a staff nurse for 2 and half years within the same Trust on a diabetes ward.

Her current role involves working as part of an inpatient DSN team and the role encompasses both inpatient and outpatient responsibilities and is very clinical in nature. She is also a non-medical prescriber and have a special interest in Type 1 diabetes, education, and diabetes technology. She also does pump clinic, transition clinic and is part of the Insulin Focus Group at her Trust.

She is part of the admin teams for the UHNM Diabetes Facebook and Twitter pages for people with diabetes, as well as the diabetes link UHNM staff group. She is also part of the TDN Network team for the North West.

She provides carbohydrate counting courses for people with diabetes, as well as different educational sessions. She has done a regional presentation on diabetes subjects for a group of anaesthetic trainees, as well as an international talk. She has also done talks for primary care teams.

She has gone through a two-week experience using flash glucose monitoring, as well as carbohydrate counting, and got a comment in December’s 2020 Nursing Standard Journal and has also spoke on a local radio about that experience.

Charlotte Gordon

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 an assistant professor of 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.

Debbie Holder

Diabetes Inpatient Specialist Nurse NNUH and Lead Diabetes Nurse School Lane Thetford

Debbie qualified as a Registered General Nurse in 1992 at Ipswich Hospital working in elderly medicine; this led to her developing an interest in diabetes. She joined primary care as a Practice Nurse in 1996 which included diabetes care as part of her job role. Progressing on to Lead Diabetes Nurse in Thetford. In 2019 Debbie joined Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital as a Diabetes Specialist Nurse Facilitator supporting Norfolk Primary Care Practices.

During COVID Debbie was moved to Diabetes Inpatient Specialist Nurse supporting patients in the hospital, being part of the team that won Excellence in Patient Care award 2021 and continued with that job role. Debbie has also returned to Lead Nurse for Diabetes in Primary care again along with her role as an Inpatient Specialist Nurse. 

She is passionate about individualised care, the participation of patients in their treatment choices, patient safety and improving care. 

She is a committee member of DISN UK, NDISA and is participating in JBDS guidelines. Debbie is a former committee member of Primary Care Diabetes Society and the Central Norfolk Integrated Diabetes Management Group. She is currently Co-Chair of Norfolk Health Professionals Diabetes Forum, and part of a Changing Labs team with Diabetes UK which was tackling inequality. Debbie has been involved in regional diabetes education events, contributed to glucose meter research, and taken part in podcast on BMJ learning. 

Ashley Jessop

Inpatient Diabetes Specialist Nurse (DSN)

Ashley, an Inpatient Diabetes Specialist Nurse with an MSc in Diabetes, and Independent Prescribing brings extensive experience in caring for patients with diabetes and handling diabetes emergencies at East Kent Hospital University Trust (EKHUFT). Before transitioning to inpatient nursing, Ashley served as a Community DSN for five years at Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust (KCHFT), where she supported outpatient consultations and led formal structured education programs such as Diabetes Education and Revision in Kent (DERIK) and Kent Adult Type 1 Education (KAT1E).

Ashley is passionate about facilitating positive changes in people's lives, with a specialist interest in Antenatal care and staff and patient education.

Claire Nicklin

Claire has been working in her current role as a Community Learning Disability Nurse since 2016. Claire supports adults with Learning Disabilities and Autism who are living in the Telford and Shropshire area as part of the Midlands Partnership Foundation Trust.

Claire has always had a passion for working with people with Learning Disabilities and has volunteered for various charities and special needs schools throughout her life.

Having a diagnosis of type 1 diabetes herself, Claire has a keen interest in helping others. Claire supports a caseload of service users, many of which have Diabetes. Personally knowing the challenges of living with the condition she is passionate about ensuring the most vulnerable service user’s health needs are met. 

Part of Claire’s role is to ensure that health care is accessible through reasonable adjustments, such as providing easy read information, working with staff teams and the individuals delivering person centred care that meets their communication needs. 

Claire is keen to continue supporting those with Learning Disabilities and Diabetes to help them and their families and carers understand their condition and improve their quality of life.

Paula Johnston

Lead inpatient diabetes nurse at the University Hospital Southampton

Paula Johnston leads a team of inpatient DSN's, working in a multidisciplinary team alongside Consultants, SPR's, Pharmacist, podiatrists and Dietitians.

She has been working as a DSN for 13 years and was the project manager for the self-administration of insulin project. Paula is the MODY lead for genetic diabetes at University Hospital Southampton.

Paula is an independent prescriber and has completed her MSc in Diabetes through Leicester University.

Paula was the QIC Diabetes Healthcare professional of the year in 2023.

Prior to her role in diabetes, Paula was a ward sister on an adult admissions unit as well as having a role as a clinical practice educator, during which she obtained her post graduate certificate in education (PGCE). 

Contact Paula - paula.johnston@uhs.nhs.uk

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. 

Alexandra Prins Mills

Alex has been working in diabetes since 2019. Alex has a vast range of experience spanning from the primary care setting to the acute inpatient diabetes setting. Alex is currently a senior diabetes nurse in East Kent Hospitals working toward an MSc in diabetes at Kings College London after being award a scholarship from the Federation of European Diabetes Nurses foundation. Once Alex has completed her MSc, her next step is to complete her non-medical prescribing.  

Prior to diabetes, Alex worked for many years in the Intensive care unit, this has given her a good grasp of complex co-morbidities and the impact this has on diabetes.   

Alex has a specialist interest in neurodiversity and diabetes, there is very little research on this subject and Alex is very much looking forward to working with the RCN team on ensuring colleagues have access to good evidence based research on this topic.  

Alex’s other specialist interest include diabetes and the menopause, type 3c diabetes and genetic forms of diabetes such as MODY. Alex hopes that she will be able to give her valuable insights on these topics to the RCN committee in order to improve diabetes care nationally in these areas.  

Matt Williams

Paediatric Diabetes Specialist Nurse

Matt is a Paediatric Diabetes Specialist Nurse working as part of a small multidisciplinary team in West Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire helping support children and young people (CYP) with all types of diabetes. He has a passion for technology and increasing access for all CYP.

Matt is also the Chair of the East of England CYP Diabetes Network, this was founded in 2009 to promote a standardised approach to healthcare for children and young people with diabetes so that the care, education or support received at each of the constituent hospitals is the same or similar. It also has an aim to improve outcomes for children and young people with diabetes. A major focus of Matt’s work has been patient engagement.

He is joint lead for the successful diabetes camps that were started in 2013, with 3 age group banded camps being held each year. These enable youngsters the opportunity for peer to peer support, learn to manage their diabetes in a supportive environment (with some either injecting or inserting their pump cannula themselves for the first time whilst away on camp) and try activities that they normally wouldn’t get to undertake.

Matt was also instrumental in setting up and running the Cape Town Diabetes Partnership Project, which saw a team of diabetes health care and young people with diabetes travel to Cape Town to run a diabetes camp for CYP with type 1 diabetes from Cape Town and the surrounding townships, before leading an education symposium for health care professionals from across the city.

Matt is a published author and has presented at various national and international conferences and has worked with various technology companies on their advisory boards.