Rachel Teal

Rachel chose to have a placement on  a Stroke Ward for a Return to Nursing course in 2004, after she had done an agency shift and learnt so much that she couldn't remember being taught in her initial training. All she remembered from that initial training was that stroke patients had to have a pillow on their lap - oh and strokes were ALL going to be eradicated by the year 2020!!!

She became a champion for a colleague's Phd research project on 'The Patients Mealtime Experience', then applied for the Stroke Research Nurse post when it was initiated and has now done that for 15 years, overseeing  a portfolio of upto 25 trials, and reminding (nagging!) the Consultants about their training!

She acts a senior nurse on the ward, and became Revalidation Champion for the ward staff, and Wellbeing Lead throughout Covid. She has turned 'the ward purple' for Stroke month several times, led on a ward move,  initiated the Stroke Patient group, and helped devise various policies- currently working on one about prisoners being seen in the ED. she joined the NSNF in 2009 and became a committee member in 2018.