Crystal Oldman is Chief Executive of the Queen’s Nursing Institute. Crystal started her career in the NHS in 1975 as a ward orderly, working shifts at weekends in Kent and Sussex Hospital whilst studying for ‘A’ levels. She qualified as a nurse in 1980 at University College Hospital (UCH) in London, and worked in clinical practice at UCH, then at the Middlesex Hospital Intensive Care Unit and then she moved into the community. Her career in the community was mostly located within the west London, but also included a year working as a clinical research Health Visitor in the respiratory unit at Great Ormond Street Hospital. In 1994 Crystal moved into a university to teach research methods and to develop the post-qualifying community nursing programmes. She spent 18 years in Higher Education, teaching, researching and supporting the development of skills in the workplace with a variety of employers, including healthcare, social care, public health, early years and the police service. Her role included the development of partnerships to promote evidence-based practice within the community and primary care nursing workforce. During her career in the university, Crystal completed a postgraduate diploma in teaching, a postgraduate diploma in public health and a masters degree in Management and Leadership of Higher Education. She completed her academic career as a Dean, moving to the Queen’s Nursing Institute (QNI) in 2012, the year in which the QNI celebrated its 125th anniversary. In 2013, Crystal completed her doctorate in education, which focused on leadership and middle management in Higher Education, providing an insight into the knowledge, skills and attributes required in middle managers working in academia. In 2014 and in 2015 Crystal was given a Nursing Times Nurse Leader award in recognition of her work at the QNI. Crystal is also the Governing Body Nurse of Aylesbury Clinical Commissioning Group, with a particular interest in quality assurance and the transformation of primary and community services to meet the national agenda of care being delivered closer to home. The QNI is a charity founded in 1887 and originally trained District Nurses to treat patients in their own homes. Today it offers a wide range of support to all nurses who work in the community, through financial assistance and scholarships, policy, campaigns, events and publications. The QNI believes that high quality nursing should be available for everyone, where and when they need it: www.qni.org.uk