Andrea Spyropoulos, RGN, SCM, RNT, ENB N07, DPSN, Cert Ed., is a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 clinical strategist and the current President

President

A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...

 of the Royal College of Nursing

Royal College of Nursing

The Royal College of Nursing is a union membership organisation with over 395,000 members in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1916, receiving its Royal Charter in 1928, Queen Elizabeth II is the patron...

.

Born in Liverpool

Liverpool

Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

, her career started with nursing

Nursing

Nursing is a healthcare profession focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life from conception to death....

 and has spanned a number of disciplines including midwifery

Midwifery

Midwifery is a health care profession in which providers offer care to childbearing women during pregnancy, labour and birth, and during the postpartum period. They also help care for the newborn and assist the mother with breastfeeding....

, academia

Academia

Academia is the community of students and scholars engaged in higher education and research.-Etymology:The word comes from the akademeia in ancient Greece. Outside the city walls of Athens, the gymnasium was made famous by Plato as a center of learning...

 and the planning and development of new hospital

Hospital

A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment. Hospitals often, but not always, provide for inpatient care or longer-term patient stays....

 projects.

She earned a number of academic qualifications notably two undergraduate degrees (BA in Health Studies, LLB (Hons) in Law) and a masters (LLM in Medical Law).

Career

Spyropoulos trained as a nurse at the then-United Liverpool Hospital Group in 1976. She has more than 30 years nursing experience, working as a Midwife and then Senior Lecturer at John Moores University, teaching Health Care and later Medical Law.

She worked on the trust board of Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology for 9 years as a non-executive director. During her term she chaired Independent Panel Reviews and the Research Governance Committee as well as sitting on the performance, audit, investment and remuneration committees. She stepped down from this role on 31 January 2007.

In 2003, Andrea joined Health Care Projects Social Infastructure. Now working as a Clinical Strategist, she provides expert clinical advice to hospital design teams.

Work with the Royal College of Nursing

Spyropoulos became a member of the Royal College of Nursing when she was 18. Appointed as a steward in 1988, since that time she has held a number of other unpaid roles within the organisation including positions as Safety Representative, Council Member and chair of Nursing Practice and Policy Committee before being elected to the role of president in 2010. Andrea has represented the Royal College of Nursing in several forums including at its Congress events and notably also at conferences hosted in the UK Parliament's House of Commons.

Spyropoulos thanked RCN members and colleagues stating that she was "really looking forward to representing the RCN and its members at the highest level.". A month later she represented the RCN at the European Parliament's 'EU Public Health Alliance'.