Public service union Unison has appointed a national nursing officer to help it promote and defend the interests of nurses.
Registered adult nurse Stuart Tuckwood took up the post this month (September), which has been vacant since Gail Adams, the previous post holder, stepped down in October 2016.
Mr Tuckwood spent the past five years at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, where he has specialised in critical care outreach as part of the trust’s rapid-response team.
Previously, the former Unison steward worked in major trauma rehabilitation at Addenbrooke’s and later as a charge nurse in the neurosurgery and neurology departments.
After completing a diploma in tropical nursing at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 2018, Stuart spent six months working in Myanmar, helping one of the country’s biggest hospitals improve its trauma intensive care delivery.
Speaking about his role, Mr Tuckwood outlined his priority to ‘make sure the current pay deal is the start of a process to restore and improve the value of nurse’s pay and not the end of it’.
He continued: ‘We also need to make sure the right support is there for nurses coming to the NHS from overseas and must win the argument over safe staffing levels and proper student nurse funding.
‘There’s much to do, but I’m in the right place to campaign for new and existing nurses to have the most fulfilling and rewarding careers possible.’
