Valerie is a Registered Nurse who began her career as a sister within Intensive Care and has worked at Great Ormond Street within a Paediatric Intensive Care Unit. She has worked within the field of Moving and Handling for over 20 years. She has been the lead for the Moving and Handling Ergonomics Service within Barts Health NHS Trust  for the last seven and half years. Valerie completed her Masters in Human Factors and Ergonomics for Patient Safety at Loughborough University in November 2018.  Valerie is passionate about ergonomics and improving musculoskeletal health for all.

Valerie is also an accredited Royal College of Nursing Health & Safety rep and in June 2019 Valerie was awarded the highly commended RCN Safety Rep of the Year award. Valerie is also the chair for the London National Back Exchange Group and actively promotes learning and sharing of best practice amongst the London group membership which is steadily growing since the Covid pandemic.

I am passionate about health and well being for healthcare staff and patient safety and l am currently undertaking two Quality Improvement projects with my organisation. The first project is the Bedside Mobility Assessment Tool (BMAT which will support nurses to safely assess the patient's mobility level and not wait for the physiotherapist to undertake the first assessment and the second Quality Improvement project involves our Moving and handling Standards  to seek assurance that the Trust is complying with safe moving and handling practices and we bench mark an overall score of compliance for each ward/department within the Trust.