Gilly qualified as an adult nurse in 2010 at the University of Southampton and initially worked in the acute hospital setting, including a medical assessment unit and trauma & orthopaedics. Whilst in the role of staff nurse, Gilly answered the health hisiting call to action and completed her health visiting training at the University of Southampton in 2013.
Gilly worked as a Health Visitor for several years and went on to complete the Southampton Sleep Training programme. This started an interest in paediatric sleep issues and she was the sleep lead for her team. Working alongside parents experiencing poor infant sleep and seeing the challenges with this, was the focus of her MSc dissertation and informed her subsequent PhD.
Having developed an interest in safeguarding within her role as Health Visitor, Gilly moved into a Specialist Safeguarding Nurse role, sitting in a specialist team within Children Services which was raising awareness of MET (missing, exploitation and/or trafficking of children). The team consisted of statutory social workers, Gilly and another Safeguarding Nurse, Barnardo’s workers and the Police. The team worked both strategically to raise awareness and disrupt/prevent MET and directly with young people at risk of/or experiencing MET.
Following this role Gilly moved into education and initially worked as a Lecturer at the University of Portsmouth supporting the set-up of the adult nursing programme, before moving to Southampton in 2018 as a Senior Teaching Fellow. Gilly has completed the Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice and gained her Senior Fellow of the HEA at the University of Southampton.
Most recently, Gilly has been working in practice as a Family Nurse Supervisor, at Solent NHS Trust, within the Family Nurse programme which is an intensive home visiting programme for young parents aged 24 and under. This role allowed Gilly to work strategically to advocate for young parents and reduce health inequalities, whilst operationally managing a team of experienced family nurses and having a small caseload of clients.
Gilly returned to the University of Southampton in January 2023 and is the module lead for NPCG1028 Global and Public Health in the undergraduate nursing curriculum. She also teaches on other modules across the pre-registration nursing programmes, including Fundamental Aspects of Care, Person Centred Care and Transitioning – Meeting Challenges in Contemporary Children’s Nursing and is a personal academic tutor.
