Final three appointments complete NRC senior leadership team | Latest news

The final three appointments to senior leadership roles for the National Rehabilitation Centre (NRC) have officially been made ahead of the facility receiving its first patients later this Autumn. 

The NRC is a 70-bed, purpose-built rehabilitation centre for people who have experienced a life-changing illness or injury. It is based on the Stanford Hall Rehabilitation Estate near Loughborough, already home to the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre (DMRC), and will be staffed and run by Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH). 

With just a couple of months before the first patients come through the doors, these final appointments to the team are critical to support the success of the pioneering NRC from Day 1. 

Lucy Nankivell, who began her nursing career at NUH before moving to University Hospitals of Burton and Derby (UHDB), has returned home to NUH to take up the reins as Lead Nurse for the NRC. 

Originally from Hertfordshire, Lucy studied at the University of Nottingham and for 10 years worked at NUH as a nurse in the Emergency Department and Major Trauma Service. Lucy then moved to UHDB to take up a position within the Strategy and Improvement and Corporate Nursing teams.

However, when the NRC Lead Nurse came up Lucy said it was an opportunity she couldn’t miss. 

Lucy said: “This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to be part of a new hospital, and the ethos of the NRC is everything you could want – the focus is on patient outcomes and helping them to return to living their lives as independently as possible. 

“It is a privilege to be leading the nursing workforce at the NRC. Nurses are the drumbeat of rehabilitation throughout the patient’s stay as they are there with them 24/7. I’m also looking forward to building more of a research and continuous improvement approach into our nursing processes to help with pushing the boundaries of what we can achieve with our patients.

“Coming back to NUH feels like coming home. There are some of the same faces in different roles, and some new faces, so it has been lovely getting reacquainted with colleagues and meeting new ones.”

Lal Russell, who has worked as a physiotherapist at NUH for 23 years, has been appointed as the first NRC Clinical Academic Lead. 

Lal, from Nottingham, has predominantly worked with neurological and stroke patients across both NUH acute sites, including at the current rehabilitation unit Linden Lodge. 

However, she also has a background in research, completing two Masters degrees and a PhD at the University of Nottingham in the last 20 years.  

Therefore, Lal jumped at the chance to both work as a physiotherapist at the NRC, whilst also leading on launching the groundbreaking NRC Academy which aims to transform rehabilitation training and education on a national level. 

Lal said: “I love being a physiotherapist and working with a multidisciplinary team to support people with complex disabilities. 

“The NRC is particularly exciting because it’s all about blue-sky thinking – it’s starting with ‘what does the patient need’ and then looking at how we can work differently and push the boundaries to achieve those goals. 

“I’m also delighted to be leading on setting up the NRC Academy to support people from across all disciplines – nurses, clinicians, medical engineers, researchers – to be the very best rehabilitation professionals they can. 

“It’s our opportunity to role model what rehabilitation could look like at a national and international level – what we will offer won’t just be a course, it will be a culture.”

Meanwhile, Alison Wildt, also a physiotherapist by background who has worked with the NRC programme for the last three years in a variety of roles, has been appointed as the first NRC Innovation Lead. 

Alison explained that it was the vision of the NRC, raising the standard of rehabilitation for everyone, that attracted her to the post. Her breadth of experience as a physiotherapist across a variety of NHS, community and private practice settings and in a diverse selection of socioeconomic communities has driven this passion.

She said: “I have seen the inequity in rehabilitation provision and want to be part of the change to drive the standard for rehabilitation nationally.

“In my new role, my focus is enabling everyone to be able to access the latest technology and advancements in rehab treatments, so that this access becomes the standard, not the exception.

“I’ve always been excited by how technology and robotics can be used to enable patients to access additional functional task practice, but in an interesting and engaging way.

“I see this as a once in a lifetime opportunity to bring these passions together and to help fulfil such unmet need.”