Meet the Team

Dianne Yarwood

Forum Chair

Dianne is a retired nurse educationalist with a career in the NHS and latterly in higher education.

After completing her training in Cardiff she moved to London and began her career as an operating department nurse, before moving into nurse education as a clinical teacher and then nurse tutor.  Whilst working in a number of roles as a tutor, senior tutor and manager she completed both bachelor and master’s degrees in psychology and sociology to inform her teaching and managerial roles in a number of schools of nursing. 

Having joined the RCN as a student nurse in the 1960s and the History of Nursing Society/Forum since its foundation in the 1980s she has been an enthusiastic nurse historian with a particular interest in the evolution and development of nurse education in England and Wales.

Over the past twenty years her engagement with the forum has included the collection of oral histories, presentations at Congress, supporting the Scrapbook Project, writing biographies for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biographies and supporting the development of a number of exhibitions.

Having previously completed 8 years as a member of the forum steering group, she is returning for a final period in the role of Forum Chair.

Professor Vari Drennan, MBE

Professor of Health Care & Policy Research at Kingston University London

Vari completed one of the innovative nursing and degree courses at Southampton University and St. Thomas's Hospital, London, graduating with a BSc. (Hons) Sociology and Social Policy and as a registered nurse and health visitor.

She worked as a senior NHS manager in Inner London before taking up an academic post 1996 in University College London Medical School Department of Primary Care. 

Vari undertakes health service research, including on aspects of the health workforce. She was awarded an MBE in 2016 for services to health service research and nursing. All of Vari's research studies require that she looks to the past to understand the present, as well identify future policy paths. She is currently working on two history of nursing projects: the fluctuating fortunes of the community nursing workforce; the presence of 'community' in the pre-registration curriculum.

She is an active member of the forum's Nurses in Red Wikipedia project, with a personal mission to ensure nurses and nursing, as a mainly women's occupation, are not written out of history (again). 

Janet Hargreaves

Janet trained as a nurse in the 1970s, working in Ophthalmic and Operating Department nursing before moving into nursing and health education in Sheffield, Leeds, and Huddersfield.

Since retiring in 2017 she has been able to focus her research, publishing and speaking interests on nursing history.   Until 2022 she was a committee member with the UK Association for the History of Nursing, supporting the website, social media, and Bulletin publication.

Her current projects include exploring local nursing and health history in the South Cumbrian village where she lives, and researching the life of Molly Murphy, a 20th Century nurse and suffragette. 

Nicola Ring

Nicola Ring is a Professor of Nursing in the School of Health and Social Care at Edinburgh Napier University, Scotland. 

After working in hospital practice (adult and child nursing) and in the community as a health visitor, Nicola moved into nursing education 20 years. She is an experienced health researcher however, her absolute passion, is the history of nursing – using evidence from our profession’s past to better understand nursing today.

Her previous nursing research has included an investigation of the careers of early UK graduate nurses (1960s-80s). Most recently she has been leading a multi-disciplinary team (nursing, midwifery, and law) researching an over-looked shared aspect of nursing and midwifery history - the women and men accused of witchcraft for their curing and caring work in early modern times. This work focuses on Scotland during the time of the Witchcraft Act 1563-1737.  The initial project was funded by the RCN Foundation in support of the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife (2020) but, work continues.

Elizabeth Howard-Thornton

Liz is a retired nurse/midwife, with a passion for nursing history, whose career in the NHS spans just short of forty years in clinical practice in England and Scotland. Undertaking general nurse training in Carlisle, midwifery in Lancaster and district nurse training in Aberdeen and Fraserburgh, Liz practised as a double-duty district nurse/midwife before moving into a team leader role at a midwife-led/GP maternity unit in Peterhead. In later years, following further specialist training in Lancashire and at the Mayday Hospital, Croydon, Liz worked as a clinical nurse specialist. In 2001, she became team leader for the specialist bladder, bowel and continence service in North Lancashire, at times, this service also included South Cumbria and the unitary authority area of Blackpool.

Active at regional and national level for many years, representing her specialism, Liz was a keen supporter of education for all care givers, taking part in the development of several national guidelines and learning resources. As one example, Liz was on the project working group for the ‘RCN Bladder and Bowel Learning Resource’. Also, in collaboration with other colleagues, winning national awards, including the Nursing Times awards 2011, winning both the Continence Care Award and Maternity, Paediatric and Neonatal Award. Prior to retirement, Liz was a forum steering committee member on the RCN Bladder and Bowel Forum. For eight years Liz was also an RCN Learning Representative within her NHS Trust.

An interest in the history of nursing began whilst researching her own family history. Liz discovered that her great grandmother had been a Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) ‘Ward Maid’ (a nursing support worker), at a large military hospital in France during World War One (WW1). This was not uncommon, as many men and women answered the call to become VADs. For ten years, Liz has been actively involved, in what is known as ‘living history’ and has taken part in numerous public events, both large and small, at home and abroad, helping to explain the important roles of nurses, VADs and auxiliary hospitals during WW1. Latterly, Liz has also been involved in a 5-year project known as the ‘Ethel Gordon Fenwick Commemorative Partnership’, working with others, to increase recognition and awareness of Ethel Gordon Fenwick, the first State Registered Nurse in the United Kingdom and founder of the International Council of Nurses.

Liz has been a member of the History of Nursing Forum for several years and took part as a volunteer in the RCN Nursing Scrapbooks project, an activity she thoroughly enjoyed, sharing a passion for nursing history with fellow RCN members.

Victoria Sweetmore

Victoria is a registered mental health nurse who has worked in higher education since 2018. Prior to this, she had a varied clinical career, working in acute psychiatric care, a community mental health team, crisis services and psychiatric liaison. As a nurse educator, Victoria entered higher education as a lecturer and has progressed to become a senior lecturer, then assistant head of mental health and learning disability nursing. She is now head of mental health and learning disability nursing and has held this position since 2021.

Currently working on her PhD examining the experiences and professional identity of mental health nurses working during the closure of the large institutions in the 1980s and 1990s, Victoria is a dedicated advocate for the recognition and examination of mental health nursing history and recognition of its distinct identity and function. She is particularly interested in oral history approaches and capturing the experiences of mental health nurses.

This is her first role within the RCN and she is looking forward to engaging with the forum and being actively involved in the promotion and dissemination of nursing histories.