This event is for healthcare professionals only.

This year’s conference is CPD accredited and will be chaired by Debbie Hicks who has an impressive reputation in the world of diabetes nursing.

Debbie has been involved in various national groups, including as the Chair of the Diabetes Nursing Strategy Group and she was Chair of the National Nurse Consultant Group from 2012 to 2014.

Debbie is the founding member and Co-Chair of Trend Diabetes (Training, Research and Education for Nurses in Diabetes). She was also the First Chair and founder of FIT-UK, now Chair of Injection Technique Matters – Best Practice in Diabetes Care that aims to encourage best practice in injection technique for all healthcare professionals, and people living with diabetes using injectable therapies to ensure optimum benefit from these medications.

As well as chairing the Community Nursing Now conference she will also lead a session on Diabetes Education at your Fingertips.

Other sessions during the conference will include:

· Transgender Healthcare in the Community by Claire Blake, formerly Carmichael. Claire has more than 15 years’ experience working within healthcare including: sexual health, LGBTQ+ clinics, elderly care, GP Nursing and more. The Cavell Trust Star Award winner went straight into GP Nursing as a newly qualified nurse, and also works in a private transgender healthcare clinic and lectures at a university.

· Continuous Glucose Monitoring in the Community by Vicki Alabraba. Vicki has been a diabetes specialist nurse for 18 years with experience across primary and secondary care across the UK. She currently works within the Eden team at Leicester Diabetes Centre writing and delivering diabetes education to primary care HCPs both locally and nationally. Vicki works clinically as a DSN in primary care, is a member of the DSN Forum UK leadership team and a committee member for the Primary Care Diabetes Society. Vicki is a member of the voluntary MDT Diabetes 101 team which was set up during the COVID-19 pandemic to support people living with diabetes. She has a keen interest in type 2 diabetes in primary care, diabetes technology, type 3c diabetes and diabetes service development. Vicki was awarded the QiC Diabetes HCP of the Year in 2020 and won two QiC Diabetes awards in 2021 with the Diabetes 101 team.

· Newly Qualified Nurses in the Community – Understanding their Career Choices and Growing the Workforce by Denise Dye and Rachel Doubleday. Denise is a Queen’s Nurse and lecturer in Community nursing and non medical prescribing at Teesside University and supports pre-registration adult nursing students. She previously worked in a community nursing role as DN sister and a community sister post, leading a team within a very rural area. She has also worked as a substance misuse nurse specialist working as a link between a community team and the local HMPs. Rachel is also a Queen’s Nurse and a lecturer at Teesside University and leads on district nursing courses (including an apprenticeship) as well as supporting pre-registration adult nursing students. Prior to this she worked in various community nursing roles in Durham and inner-city London. Whilst working as a DN sister in Durham, she was also an Executive Nurse with a local primary care commissioning organisation. She is currently undertaking research to explore career choices and what leads people to take up – or not – a career in community nursing.

· Nursing Outside of the Box: The Work of British Sikh Nurses by Rohit Sagoo. Rohit Sagoo is a Children's Nurse and a PhD student at the University of Bedfordshire. He qualified as a children's nurse in the late nineties and practised around hospitals based in London for 10 years; after that, he taught in further and higher education. In 2016, he started British Sikh Nurses, which addresses the health and well-being needs of the South Asian Community and supports the personal and professional development of qualified nurses. In 2021, Rohit won the Royal College of Nursing Leadership Award and the London Faith and Belief Awards in 2018. He is also the 1514th Point of Light, awarded by the Prime Minister in 2020, and was named one of the top 75 influential nurses in the UK by the Nursing Times – NHS Birthday 75, Making an Impact List.

· Homeless and Inclusion Health – Meeting the Needs of Excluded Populatioms by Samantha Dorney-Smith. Samantha is a Registered Nurse, Specialist Practitioner (Practice Nursing), and Nurse Prescriber. Having started her career in General Medicine and A&E she has been working with people experiencing homelessness and other inclusion health groups since 2004. She previously managed the Health Inclusion Team (a nurse outreach team working in hostels and day centres in Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham), and subsequently set up the Pathway inpatient services for homeless people in GSTT, Kings and SLaM. Sam now works as a Nursing Fellow for Pathway, supporting clinical practice and quality improvement in the Pathway teams, and across the wider inclusion health field in the community. She also leads various project lines for Pathway, has had several journal articles published, has sat on numerous homeless health related steering groups, and was previously seconded to the Department of Health. She is an Ad Hoc Advisor to the Queen’s Nursing Institute Homeless Health Programme and the Secretary of the London Network of Nurse’s and Midwives Homelessness Group. She is a Queen’s Nurse and recently qualified as a Professional Nurse Advocate.

Community Nursing Now National Conference