Ruth Collins

With over 20 years of experience as a theatre nurse, Ruth currently holds the position of Clinical Director at Solasta Healthcare, a provider of premium cataract surgery whose vision is to become the leading light in ophthalmology patient care.

In her previous role as a Nurse Development Lead, Ruth was responsible for coordinating education and training, practice development, clinical workforce, and governance. Although trained as an adult nurse, this role was in a paediatric setting, where she managed nearly 500 nurses and was involved in the perioperative environment.

Ruth’s main areas of interest are education, governance, infection prevention and control, person-centred care and patient and staff experience. She is an advocate for patient and staff safety and the development of safe, caring and confident practitioners within the perioperative environment. Ruth is passionate about fostering safe cultures and promoting inclusivity for all roles within the perioperative setting. Additional to this, her areas of clinical expertise include orthopaedics, general surgery, vascular, plastics, neuro and ophthalmology.

Ruth has been a member of NATN, and subsequently AfPP, since 2005 and was originally a member of the Brunel Branch. She was involved in the Northern Ireland branch with responsibility for membership and then became the regional lead for Northern Ireland, a role she now supports as trustee.

Ruth has represented AfPP in relation to OneTogether, HIS and NAP6 and provides consultancy support to the Association. Ruth currently sits on the Governance Committee and considers it a privilege to contribute in this way.