Head of Learning and Practice Development, Royal College of Nursing; England

Associate Professor, Dr Nichola Ashby is the Head of Learning and Practice Development at the Royal College of Nursing. She strategically leads the development and delivery of RCN education, learning and development offer across the UK, representing nursing and nurses from across the entire health and social care provision.

She represents the RCN on the development of national competency frameworks and strategic leadership responses for care delivery and workforce development for UK ICU covid-19 response. Nichola sits on the steering group for the National Clinical Enquiry of Outcome and Clinical Death and attends senior stakeholder and advisory groups representing the RCN members at NHSE/I, Health Education England, Council of Deans and The Nursing Midwifery Council. Nichola represents UK nursing voices influencing policy development, care delivery and education. She has led the RCN education team to establish a strategic direction for education, learning and development and is working on the development of a research strategy and professional framework. As an active researcher Nichola’s PhD explored the stigmatising attitudes values and beliefs of healthcare workers towards iatrogenic infections. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and continues to actively support research into student experiences of learning during covid-19.

She was Co Chair of the RCP/RCN Modern Ward Rounds working party and co author of the report.