I am deeply honoured to receive this professorship and am grateful to my colleagues at the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care for their support. This position comes with great responsibility and I am committed to ensuring the highest standards of education for our students. Guy’s and St Thomas’ close working relationship with King’s College London ensures excellence in teaching, research and innovation which benefits our patients. This is just one of the many ways in which our collaboration continues to strengthen to advance medicine and clinical care for the future.
Professor Avey Bhatia OBE
02 September 2025
New Professors of the Practice of Nursing joining Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery and Palliative Care
These are the first appointments of their kind in the Faculty.
Two new professors will join the Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery and Palliative Care. Avey Bhatia and Tracey Carter are the Chief Nurses at Guy’s and St Thomas’ and King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, respectively.
Avey and Tracey become Professors of the Practice of Nursing in recognition of their sustained achievements as senior nurses in maintaining patient safety, upholding nursing and midwifery standards and student education.
I’m honoured to be awarded a Professorship of Practice from King’s College London, and very much look forward to sharing my knowledge with nursing students to help bridge the gap between theoretical learning and hands-on experience. It is a privilege to be bestowed this role with King’s College London, and an honour to represent the profession in the pursuit of continued excellence in education and outcomes across King’s Health Partners, influencing the wider health and social care landscape.
Professor Tracey Carter MBE
Avey qualified in 1991 and her clinical experience includes theaters, coronary care and general and cardiothoracic intensive care nursing. Her first Chief Nurse role was at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells where she did her nurse training. She then became Chief Nurse at St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in February 2017. Avey has a masters in public administration and is also President of the Florence Nightingale Foundation and honorary Vice President of the Nightingale Fellowship. She returned to Guy’s and St Thomas’ as Chief Nurse in November 2020, having trained as a critical care nurse at St Thomas’ at the beginning of her career.
Tracey qualified in 1992 and her clinical experience is in oncology, palliative care and haematology. As Chief Nurse and Executive Director of Midwifery at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Tracey’s responsibilities include the professional leadership of the Trust’s 6,000 nursing, midwifery and allied health professional staff. She also has overall responsibility for safeguarding vulnerable patients, as well as infection prevention and control.
Prior to joining KCH, Tracey was Chief Nurse and Director of Infection Prevention and Control at West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, a role she held for nine years. Tracey has an MSc in advanced clinical practice and she undertook the Florence Nightingale/Windsor Leadership System leadership course. Tracey is a Trustee at Hertfordshire MIND and returned to London to join King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in 2023.
Tracey has over 30 years’ experience as a nurse and has held several senior positions before joining West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals, including as Deputy Chief Nurse at Barts Health. In May 2019, Tracey received a prestigious Chief Nursing Officer award, and in 2010 she was appointed an MBE for her nursing leadership and services to the NHS.
As Chief Nurses within our partner Trusts hosting clinical placements and conducting patient-focused research, both Avey and Tracey are fantastic role models for our students. As we are ranked first in the world for nursing, we aspire for all of our nursing and midwifery graduates to be leaders; I’m sure they will value hearing from Avey and Tracey at various opportunities during their tenure. Avey and Tracey are sure to be an inspiration to many.
Professor Richard Harding, Interim Executive Dean, Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery and Palliative Care