Meet the Team

Gail Goddard

Forum Chair

District Nurse Team Manager / Senior Lecturer

I qualified as an RN from UCH in 1988. I then worked in hospitals until 1990 when I joined community nursing. I have worked as a RN, District Nurse Team Manager, Specialist Community Practice Teacher, Practice Supervisor and Assessor and a General Practice Nurse until I retired in Dec 2020.

I returned and now work part time as a DN supporting across the Community teams. I support newly qualified nurses, newly qualified DN SPQ nurses and provide personal development support for other individuals within the teams. I am a nurse prescriber and a supervisor/ assessor for pre- reg students. I was honoured to be awarded the Queen’s Nursing Award in 2013 and am also a QNI Aspiring Leader. 

I also deliver education as a Senior Lecturer to future District and Community Nurses; this gives me a unique perspective of both areas and enables me to understand the realistic pressures of service delivery daily. I feel that it is important to teach with compassion while being a positive role model, challenging students, and colleagues to be the best version of themselves that they can be. Supporting students in clinical practice while also teaching in the university helps to keep me relevant and authentic. I am passionate about community nursing and wish to encourage others to understand the value and uniqueness of this type of nursing.

I have been a member of the steering committee for the District and Community Nursing Forum for 4 years. During this time, I have taken an active part in all the committees’ activities, contributed to various projects within the forum such as contributing to articles, completing interviews and supported the previous Chair. 

I have really enjoyed working with community nurses across the four countries and wish to continue to build a network of experience around the forum so that we can continue to enhance community nursing’s voice and raise our profile – highlighting the value of this specialism of nursing.

My vision for the future is to continue to grow the forum especially inviting our Internationally Educated Colleagues to join as well as creating a supportive network for our existing colleagues. Retention of this highly skilled workforce is imperative as is encouraging new colleagues to join the community. I believe the forum has a huge positive part to play in this area. 

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Sarah Hayes

Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer, East Kent University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Sarah qualified as a nurse in 1997. She knew straight away that she wanted to be a District Nurse and became a Community Staff Nurse in South West London as soon as she qualified, then undertaking her District Nurse Specialist Practitioner training in 2000.

She worked as a District Nurse caseload holder in Camden and then Islington and then as a Locality Manager. She had a number of senior management and leadership roles across community, hospital and integrated care, including as a Divisional Clinical Director before becoming Deputy Chief Nurse at Whittington Health NHS Trust and then at Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust. She then became Chief Nurse at North Middlesex Hospital NHS Trust, an integrated care Trust in North London and is now Chief Nursing and Midwifery Office for East Kent University Hospitals NHS Trust.

Sarah has been awarded the title of Queen’s Nurse which is available to individual nurses who have demonstrated a high level of commitment to patient care and nursing practice.

Wendy Newnham

Deputy Chief Nursing Officer (Community and Primary Care), Hampshire and Isle of White ICB

Wendy qualified as a registered nurse in 1996 in London (Whittington Hospital) and realised during her pre-registration training that she wanted to work in the community setting. Wendy worked in hospitals in London and Australia before completing the SPQ BSc in District Nursing in Kingston and then working as a District Nurse in Kensington and Chelsea.

Following starting a family Wendy worked in Guildford, Surrey gaining experience in a variety of roles including Discharge Liaison Nurse, twilight nurse, practice nurse and nurse visitor to older people and then moved to clinical/service lead posts where she set up a Community Matron team. Other roles include Deputy Chief Nurse, Lead for Adult Community Services and Head of Urgent and Integrated Care within the Surrey area. Wendy has also completed an MSc in Health and Social Care, achieving a distinction for her research dissertation on the benefits and challenges of using mobile working in adult community nursing.

More recently Wendy was Nurse Director in a local GP Federation and undertook a one-year secondment as a CNO Clinical Senior Nurse Fellow at NHS England, working alongside the National Head of Community Nursing. In 2023 Wendy has started in a new role as Deputy Chief Nursing Officer for Community and Primary Care in Hampshire and Isle of White ICB. You might see Wendy out running the occasional marathon and at various Park Runs across the country. Wendy is very passionate about community nursing and all that it can offer which is the reason she applied for and joined the RCN district and community nursing forum steering committee.

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Marysia Graffin

Community Area Manager/Lead Nurse

Since April 2010, Marysia has been a community nurse working within the NHS, working alongside the integrated team to provide a nursing service for patients requiring care in their own homes.

Marysia began her health care career as a care assistant in a nursing home in 1989, working various roles as a domestic then senior care assistant. She worked within this profession, until she received her BSc (Hons) in Adult nursing from the University of Ulster in September 2008. Marysia returned to the University of Ulster in 2013 to complete her specialist practice in district nursing which led onto her current role as district sister.

Marysia is a nurse prescriber and mentors for pre-registration and post-registration students. Marysia was honoured to be awarded the Queen’s Nursing Award in 2016. Marysia completed the QNI leadership programme in 2018, which encouraged Marysia to complete a course as investigating officer within her role.

Marysia commenced a new role in September 2022 as Community Area Manager/Lead Nurse in Magherafelt. Marysia has oversight over integrated teams including District/community nurse and Treatment rooms.

While her main passion is nursing, on her days off she enjoys walking and family time. Marysia would like to continue to develop her role as Community Area Manager/Lead nurse within District and community nursing.

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Marie Rogers

Marie trained at the University of Sheffield, qualifying in 2008. Her early career started in a nursing home in South Yorkshire, but she moved to Cumbria shortly after qualifying to give her young children a lovely, safe environment to grow up and worked here for a nursing home on the shores of Morecambe Bay. Seeking to expand her knowledge and skills she was fortunate to secure a role in the NHS working on a medical ward specialising in respiratory care for the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay. She worked here for 4 years before feeling ready to make her move into community nursing. Her heart had laid with community nursing since her student placement in community back in 2006. After several attempts she secured a position in the Community nursing team in Barrow in Furness in 2012 under Cumbria Foundation Trust. During that time, she has undertaken her CSP with the university of Cumbria and worked in a variety of settings in Cumbria including Windermere, Millom and Barrow.

She became a Queen’s nurse in 2022. A title which she is very proud to hold.

Her interest in the RCN started as a student when attending Congress. Since then she has only missed 3 congress and as her nursing career has developed, so has her insight and interests in the RCN and became a steward in 2016. Her passion for fairness and equality has driven her to be an advocate for community nursing, especially after the care group transferred in 2018 to University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay. Developing the trusts understanding of community services and their wealth of knowledge, she has worked closely with them during her in the trust, focusing on policy and job evaluation as well as the strikes. She managed the picket line at Furness general over 5 days on 3 separate occasions.

She is also the Cumbria Branch chair and in her 4^th year now in that role. She has faced many challenges as a branch and trying to secure good attendance at branch meetings is a struggle up and down the country.

With her knowledge, experience and passion for community nursing, she hopes to make a positive impact within the forum by championing the work that community teams do and having them recognised as the speciality they are.

Charlene Smith

Community care practitioner

Charlene Smith is a newly qualified nurse. During her time as a student at LJMU, she was a student mentor, a role that involved many interesting opportunities. These included: supporting other students, supporting with clinical skills teaching sessions, being a named point of contact for first years nursing student, helping on open days, taking part in research projects, completing health checks in partnership with LFC and supporting in the recruitment of new staff members. This role was an easy step to take. Before becoming a mature student Charlene was a teaching assistant, therefore supporting others in their learning. This has always been her passion. 

Charlene has been fortunate enough to have some unique experiences during her time as a student. One of which was a leadership placement, designed to give students an insight into the vast variety of roles available in nursing and encourage future nurses to develop their leadership skills. She had the opportunity to attend the Student Nursing Times Awards in London as a student representative for her university. Charlene has also been a member of NHS England’s student council, looking at issues such as those that affect student nurses.

Since qualifying in September 2023, Charlene has been working as a community care practitioner within a district nursing team. She loves the independence this role has given her, pushing her out of her comfort zone and developing her clinical judgement whilst still having the support of a great team around her.

As someone who is passionate about leading change from the front, Charlene is excited to see where the future takes her and to see the changes she can champion for both patients and staff. 

Irene Zeller

Lecturer in Nursing Education

Irene started her nurse training in 1982 at the Middlesex Hospital and worked in a variety of staffing roles within several London hospitals. Irene decided to organise a day’s annual leave from ITU where she was working at the time and spent this shadowing a district nursing team leader, with the realisation that this was where she wanted to spend the rest of her career.  Irene moved to a community staff nurse post in 1990 before completing her district nursing qualification and working as a district nurse team leader within a socially deprived ward in the Harlow area, leading a team for a busy caseload.   

Irene had various roles within the Essex locality, including being elected as the nurse representative on the executive board for an early adopter of the newly formed Primary Care Groups in Epping. This experience of representing nursing colleagues and ensuring those views were heard at an executive level gave Irene an understanding of the importance of having a voice and speaking up.

During this time, Irene became a practice development facilitator working with many different health professions in the community providing clinical leadership to meet the needs of the local population. She became an assistant director of nursing within a community trust, working at board level and again bringing the voice of nurses to the table.

In 2002, Irene moved to work within education as a lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University and then more latterly changed to work since 2012 at King’s College London. Throughout her time within education, Irene has always advocated for care outside of hospital and during her teaching explores with pre-registration nurses the complexity of care that can take place across a variety of settings. She is enthusiastic about delivering quality education across nursing fields and for post registration education. In 2017, Irene led the development of pre-registration nurses having a more community focused practice education, with more of their placements taking place outside of hospital. This is to demonstrate the importance of newly qualified students starting their careers outside of hospital and valuing the career opportunities that are open to them across a variety of settings.  

Whilst passionate about nursing and education, away from this Irene enjoys her family time and walking their rescue dog.

Irene is now starting her second tenure as a member of the steering committee and is looking forward to widening the chance for the forum members to have their views heard.