Professor Ruth Harris from the Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care has been awarded a prestigious Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Fellowship. RCN Fellows are inspirational leaders who have made an exceptional contribution to nursing and improving health care.

As a distinguished community of professionals, Fellows are ambassadors of the RCN and work to influence policy, practice, education and research. In doing so, they are leading and influencing change for the benefit of nursing.

Ruth is a nurse and health service researcher. Her research focuses on understanding how complex nursing and interventions contribute to healthcare delivery, patient outcome, and the patient experience of care, particularly for older people and those with long-term conditions.

Ruth will continue working on projects with the RCN, including contributing to the development of a research strategy, collaborating on an RCN-funded project to explore the impact of nursing research and on the ICON study: an ongoing study of the impact of COVID-19 on the nursing workforce.

Ruth graduated as a registered nurse with a BSc (Hons) at King’s before completing an MSc and PhD. She has worked in a range of research posts in the NHS and academia, these include Deputy/Acting Director of the National Nursing Research Unit at King’s and Professor of Nursing Practice and Innovation at Kingston University and St. George’s, University of London.