Meet the Team

Sarah Cato

Forum Chair

Sarah qualified as a nurse in 1993 and, with the exception of one year in orthopaedics, has always worked within emergency care. Her roles started in the Emergency department an as a registered nurse, junior and then Senior sister. She then went on to complete her Emergency Nurse Practitioner training.

After completing her degree, and an MSC, Sarah became a practice development nurse and then matron for an Emergency department, urgent treatment centre and minor injuries unit.

She is currently lead nurse for Emergency medicine which includes urgent, emergency and same day services, as well as an acute admissions unit.

After seeing a RCN advert for committee, Sarah joined as an Emergency Care Association committee member in 2020 and became its chair in January 2022. Her commitment to the committee and its members is to give emergency care nurses a voice in the post-COVID era, maximising opportunities to support and develop ECA members and the wider emergency care family.

Rachel Bird

Deputy Nurse Director for Operating Services, Critical Care & Anaesthesia (OSCCA) Directorate, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust 

Rachel qualified in 1996 with a Diploma in Adult Nursing for Sheffield University.  She gained experience on a Trauma Orthopaedic ward before moving into the Emergency Department at Sheffield Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. This is where Rachel spent the next sixteen years of her nursing career progressing to a Senior Sister & Emergency Nurse Practitioner. During this time Rachel continued with her studies and obtained a BSc (Hons) in Adult Nursing, a MSc in Advanced Practice Development and became a Non-Medical prescriber.

Rachel moved out of Emergency Care in 2012 into a key clinical leadership position where she provided operational and strategic leadership ensuring the delivery of high quality patient care.

In 2016 Rachel wanted to progress her career to fulfil her aspirations of becoming a Chief Nurse and moved to The Rotherham Foundation Trust, where she was Matron in a number of areas; Emergency Care, Critical Care, General Surgery, Endoscopy, Trauma & Elective Orthopaedics.

Rachel’s passion for Emergency Care continued and in 2019 became Lead Nurse in the largest single site Emergency Department in the country at Nottingham University Hospitals.  In December 2021 Rachel moved back to Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust as Deputy Nurse Director for Operating Services, Critical Care & Anaesthesia (OSCCA) Directorate.

In 2019 Rachel obtained a leadership scholarship with the Florence Nightingale Foundation which has provided her with a number of opportunities to further develop her leadership skills. During the scholarship Rachel completed a service improvement project to improve the timeliness of post-operative analgesia and in 2022 she will be attending Harvard University to complete a leadership course.

Throughout Rachel’s career she has strived to ensure that patients receive excellent care and that staff are supported and cared for. Prior to leaving Nottingham University Hospitals she was involved in reducing Violence and Aggression on health care professional and wants to continue with this work whilst she is a member of the Emergency Care Association Forum.

Rachel is still passionate about Emergency Care and wishes to continue to help support and develop Emergency Care nurses now and in the future.  

Debbie de Labauve d'Arifat

Head of Nursing, Urgent and Emergency Care, The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust (Deputy Chair RCN Emergency Care Forum)

Debbie qualified in 2004 and went to work directly as a newly qualified adult nurse in her local Emergency Department having always had a passion to work in emergency care. Over the following 7 years she worked her way up to a Band 7 alongside studying for her BSc in Emergency Care. She then went on to develop skills and knowledge in autonomous practice by undertaking her Postgraduate Certificate in Contemporary Nursing which encompassed advanced practice and non-medical prescribing allowing her to work in a dual role as both a Senior Sister and an ANP. Once she had consolidated these skills, she diversified by undertaking the role of Practice Development Nurse due to an ongoing passion for nurse education and development. After 13 years in in an emergency environment she decided to use her advanced practice skills by working in primary care as an ANP for 2 years.  

Debbie then continued her leadership journey by moving to Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Trust in central London where she was the matron of their very large and busy Emergency Department which allowed her to develop into an experienced leader with a particular passion for education, workforce and resilience for 4 years. She is currently the Head of Nursing of Urgent and Emergency Care at The Princess Alexandra Hospital Trust where covering ED, Acute Medicine, SDEC and UTC consolidating her leadership skills in the wider division and using her expertise to support change, quality improvement alongside ensuring a high standard of safe and quality nursing care is delivered. 

Phil Hill

Phil is from Gwent having trained as a Registered Nurse in the Royal Gwent Hospital in 1990. Whilst working as a care assistant prior to this he also volunteered as a Medic in Mountain/River rescue and has been developing his specialist interest of Pre-hospital and Resuscitation. His experiences include working in most areas including Accident and Emergency, Theatres, Coronary care and Emergency Assessment Units. Phil became the youngest (and one of the first) Resuscitation Training Officers in NHS Wales and helped expand the skill of manual defibrillation outside of the Coronary care Unit. Having qualified as a Resuscitation Council (UK) Instructor in both Adult and Paediatrics by 1998 he set up a British Heart Foundation HeartStart Gwent and Caerphilly CPR training scheme and also the Welsh Ambulance Service First Responder scheme (CFR Newport City). Since 2005 Phil’s substantive post has been with the Gwent Urgent Care Out of Hours service as a Nurse Practitioner (then awarded an Advanced Nurse Practitioner ANP title) and since 2017 as a Senior Nurse in the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board (ABUHB).

Other qualifications include an MSc in Advanced Practice (non-Medical Prescribing), a BSc in Emergency care (SPQ) and a Diploma in management and an NVQ(4) in Training and Development. He became a Founding Fellow of RCN Faculty of Emergency Nursing in 2004. Working in the Primary and Community Care Division he has led the way (locally and nationally) on other projects such as the monitoring of deteriorating patients in the community, verification of death (including a paediatric policy) and multiple Patient Group Directions. Phil was on the frontline of the Pandemic response across the Gwent area which included responding for the OOHs/Welsh Ambulance Service with other multiple roles in the Health board. Over the years Phil has been part of leading several ANP led Emergency Department/Medical Emergency Unit re-direction and triage projects. Most recently linking with Urgent Primary Care/OOHs GPs and an ANP MSc Programme with Swansea University.

Phil is currently on secondment undertaking his professional doctorate through Cardiff Metropolitan University sponsored by Save a Life Cymru (NHS Wales Collaborative – Cardiac network). He is also supporting One Voice Wales (Town & Community Councils) with Defibrillator support and CPR awareness across Wales. He is maintaining his clinical skills as an Ambulance CFR.

Phil’s main volunteer work is as medical adviser to “Jacks Appeal ABUHB” working with the family of a teenager who died of out of hospital cardiac arrest in 2012. The appeal works to raise money for Public Access Defibrillator sites across Wales and has recently hit the £1/4 million landmark.

Sara Morgan

Nurse lecturer, University of South Wales

Sara has 16 years Emergency care experience, Working within the Emergency Unit at the University Hospital of wales. Here Sara progress from a junior staff nurse to a team leader. Whilst working in Cardiff She undertook her MSc in Advanced nursing Practice and was instrumental in setting up and developing the ANP service within Cardiff and Vale UHB. Her last clinical post was as an Advanced Nurse practitioner in ED.  Sara now works as a Senior Lecturer in Advanced Practice at the University of South Wales. 

In 2015 Sara moved to the University of South Wales to work as a senior lecturer in Advanced Nursing practice and teaches on an extremely successful MSc programme. Sara works in both pre, post registration Nurse Education at the University, and has a specialist interest in developing Emergency care skills through simulation. She was recently part of a team who developed a multi professional Blue Light simulation event for a cohort of pre registration Nursing and Gwent police probationer students. This event focused of collaborative working and emergency preparedness.  
Sara is still passionate about Emergency care and the development of future Emergency Care nurses

Matthew Osborne

Matthew started his training in 2001 at the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery, part of Kings College London - graduating with DipHe Nursing studies with registration as an adult nurse (RN).

He worked for three years at St Thomas Hospital in Trauma Orthopaedics and Spinal Surgery before becoming a Band 6 and working on the Trauma, Orthopaedics and Plastics surgery ward for a year. During his four years working in London, he did bank shifts in Southend University Hospital's ED, where he moved to work as a charge nurse from 2008 to 2023.

For the past six years, he worked part-time in Southend Emergency Department and as a University of Essex Lecturer for undergraduate nurses, nurse apprentices, higher apprentices and on post-graduate courses. In June, he left his ED charge nurse position and went to the University full time where he is now a Lecturer in Adult Nursing, Clinical Skills and advanced practice and is also the Lead for Simulation for the School of Health and Social Care, where he has been working to improve the ability of the university to deliver clinical skills education and has introduced virtual reality and artificial intelligence learning platforms to his students. He still does bank shifts in his local ED to maintain his skills and links to clinical practice. 

Matthew has a DipHe in Nursing Studies, a BSc in Adult Nursing, a BSc in Orthopaedic Nursing, a PGCert Acute & Emergency Care, and an MSc in Advanced Practice Critical Care. While he started his Professional Doctorate in 2018, he put it on hold in early 2020 to help his department meet the challenges of COVID and the subsequent ongoing NHS pressures. Matthew is trained to an advanced level for patient assessment, independent prescribing, trauma, advanced life support, and paediatric advanced life support.

Matthew has been an RCN steward since 2012, but since leaving clinical practice has transitioned to being a learning rep. He has been a regular guest speaker for regional RCN conferences where he typically delivers clinical education sessions on a wide variety of topics, recent sessions have included Sepsis, DKA, Renal system and fluid balance, effective handovers and DNACPR and Head Injuries and neurological observations. From January 2024, Matthew is also the RCN Essex branch chair.

Matthew also coaches the Essex County under-21 bowls team and has played bowls competitively at the County level since he was 12.

Natalie Stringer

Emergency Department Sister, Somerset NHS Foundation Trust

Natalie found her passion for Emergency Nursing as a third-year student nurse on her final placement. After qualifying in 2009 she spent an initial 6 months gaining experience on the wards in Gastro medicine and then women’s health returning to Emergency care early in 2010 where she completed her degree. She has progressed from a junior staff nurse through to Junior Sister and now is in her 5th year as a Senior Sister.

After noticing an advert with the RCN to join the Emergency Care forum committee in 2023 she was successful in her interview to become a forum steering committee member.