The healthcare landscape is in rapid evolution and Edinburgh Napier nursing staff and alumni are making critical contributions.

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The role of nurse educators

Nurse academic, Professor Susan Dawkes, is Edinburgh Napier’s new Dean of health and social care education. “I am delighted to re-join the University community to provide leadership for the delivery of high-quality, contemporary programmes of education for health and social care professionals, not just in Scotland but across the world,” Professor Dawkes comments.

A cardiology nursing expert, Professor Dawkes, previously spent 16 years of her career at Edinburgh Napier, beginning as a lecturer in nursing and going on to hold senior leadership roles including Head of Nursing and Head of Learning & Teaching. “I’m passionate about all the healthcare professions,” she explains, “but as a nurse myself, I feel strongly about nursing and its impact and importance to the health of society.” She is particularly keen to celebrate careers in nursing and highlight the ways to progress within in it: “I think as nurse educators we need to do better at inspiring people about nursing as a career and the huge variety of roles it opens up. There are many possible pathways to follow, and my own experience illustrates this.”

Professor Dawkes started her nursing career at 17: “When I began in 1989, I didn’t think I would be anything other than a nurse. I still am a nurse, but I’ve had various careers within this profession. Cardiology really piqued my interest and that led me to study for further qualifications. I also spent time overseas working in Singapore, Canada and Hong Kong. I want our nursing students to understand that the opportunities to expand their horizons are enormous.

Edinburgh Napier is Scotland’s only university to offer pre-registration training in all four nursing specialties and is one of the largest providers of nursing and midwifery education in the country. “It doesn’t matter how people come into nursing or how they want to make a difference – whether as a ward nurse or the next Chief Nursing Officer for Scotland – we can support them to succeed. Our programmes allow them to make choices around what interests and excites them,” Professor Dawkes explains.

The University also has a reputation for pioneering healthcare research: “I see real potential to increase our impact across the healthcare landscape,” Professor Dawkes comments, “and my ambition is to boost our support of people who are keen to come into the professions while continuing to make a valuable and distinctive contribution to critical health concerns through our research.”

Nurse-led research is vital to generating high-quality evidence

Working closely with patients and families provides nurses with rich insights and essential knowledge, which when channelled into research can have a profound impact on health outcomes.

Improving care for people living with HIV/AIDS

Lecturer in Public Health, Dr Mary Abboah-Offei, is a leading researcher who previously worked as an emergency nurse in Ghana’s Korle-bu Teaching Hospital where she cared for patients with various diagnosis including HIV/AIDS.

She has since completed a master’s and a PhD focused on investigating how best to care and support people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in order to improve their wellbeing, health outcomes, and quality of life. “I am thrilled to have received a research grant of around £1.5million from the Medical Research Council to continue my work testing the effectiveness of community-based enhanced care intervention (CECI) for people with HIV/AIDS,” Dr Abboah-Offei explains.

This research will refine CECI by including ‘Extra’ components of empowering PLWHA to engage, participate and contribute to their care decisions; and the use of mobile phones to deliver care (telehealth) – hence the project’s title ‘ExtraCECI’: “My goal is to see ExtraCECI and its person-centred principles adapted as part of routine care for people with HIV/AIDS and replicated across the whole health system in Ghana,” she adds.

Pioneering research into spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD)

Every year in Scotland, between 350 and 600 people are thought to be affected by SCAD, and around 95% of them are women under the age of 60. “These women are not being well served by cardiac services,” explains Professor Neubeck, “because SCAD patients have few or none of the normal risk factors for heart disease and their needs are different to patients (mainly men who have suffered a heart attack) that traditional cardiac rehabilitation has been designed and tested for.”

Her research team is improving understanding of the condition, developing effective treatments, and designing a safe and effective recovery programme for SCAD survivors. “We hope to transform rehabilitation and screening for SCAD and scale the recovery programme to improve health outcomes for SCAD patients worldwide,” adds Professor Neubeck.

Career paths in healthcare: nursing alumni tell their stories

Across the UK and around the globe, our nursing alumni are making a difference to patient care every day. Here we share the stories of three individuals: Nikki Stephen, Rebecca Moralee, and Sean King.

Nikki Stephen graduated with a BN Nursing in 2021 and is currently a Community Nurse Practitioner with Craiglockhart Medical Group.

“Moving from the acute sector to community nursing has allowed me to face many different situations and challenges I hadn’t experienced before. One of the areas that has had a big impact on me is caring for end-of-life patients. I feel extremely proud to offer care and support to patients and relatives at such an emotional and significant moment in their lives. And having learnt how to cope in these situations, I enjoy sharing my knowledge and experience with other members of staff and nursing students.

Community nursing requires a high level of decision making and clinical judgement to ensure that patient health needs are met effectively. It involves me in providing specialist advice to other healthcare professionals, as well as patients and their relatives.

What I enjoy so much is the opportunity to make a difference to people’s lives. It is an extremely rewarding job, though it can be very difficult at times, but to go home at the end of a busy shift, knowing you’ve done your very best for your patients and their relatives, makes all the hard work worth it. I love my role within nursing and feel extremely privileged to be part of my caring team.


Rebecca Moralee is a Clinical Application Specialist for medical devices company Mindray. She graduated in 2010 with a BN Nursing (Adult).

“I am passionate about improving patient outcomes, enhancing user experience, and advancing healthcare innovation. Initially, I found the transition from clinical nursing to industry quite a steep learning curve, but a big benefit of working for global companies is the exposure to different healthcare systems and products, and there are lots of new opportunities. Making the leap into industry has exposed me to new ways of thinking.

I’ve worked with diverse and multidisciplinary teams and have travelled across Europe supporting surgeons; I even worked in Qatar for a year, which was a really interesting experience. I feel it’s such a privilege to support healthcare staff to utilise technology that can make a difference to them and helps patient safety. I love contributing to the delivery of high-quality care, education, and consultancy.

When I first qualified, I was doubtful of my abilities, and I used to hold myself back. Slowly, I gained confidence and the awareness that we are more capable than we realise. For me, studying nursing at Edinburgh Napier completely changed the course of my life – I’d previously been working in finance. More recently, I completed a Master of Business Administration in Healthcare at the University, and I’ve undertaken various other professional qualifications throughout my career. The challenges of my work make it always feel new. If you’re willing to learn and try things, there are so many opportunities out there.”

Sean King is a PCI Clinical Nurse Specialist in the world-renowned Essex Cardiothoracic Centre (CTC) within Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust. He graduated in 2014.

“The scope of nursing is vast and so varied that there’s a role for everyone within it, and I think it’s about finding what you feel passionate about. As a percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) nurse specialist, working within the world-renowned Essex Cardiothoracic Centre (CTC), I’m part of a three-nurse team which delivers a wide array of care to patients who have undergone complex percutaneous coronary procedures, taking responsibility for their on-going clinical management.

Back as a Band 5 ward nurse, I thought that would be my career, but then you discover there are all these possibilities and pathways. When I worked within an acute receiving unit at Western General, Edinburgh, I was seeing patients with various heart conditions, looking at ECGs, and finding it all fascinating, and that started my interest in cardiology. Now, I sometimes I step back for a moment and think ‘Wow, I’ve come so far!’.

What’s so great about nursing is the range of people who enter it; it’s a multicultural, diverse, and inclusive workforce and I still find that so rewarding to be part of. Plus, you grow every day; you are continually building your knowledge and understanding. In 2020 I was redeployed to A&E due to the COVID-19 pandemic and what a learning curve that was. It was the most significant experience of my career, and I rejoined cardiology two or so years later with many new skills.

I’ve continued to undertake further qualifications, for example a Master’s in Advanced Clinical Practice and the RCUK Advanced Life Support course, and I also teach at the local university – I so enjoy interacting with the next generation of nurses coming through.”

This article is part of the Red Triangle 2025 - Edinburgh Napier magazine for alumni, friends and supporters. Click here to explore this year's edition.