Dame Ruth Rosemarie Beverley, (born 1 June 1967), known professionally as Ruth May, is a British nurse. Since 2019, she has served as the

Chief Nursing Officer Nursing management consists of the performance of the leadership functions of governance and decision-making within organizations employing nurses. It includes processes common to all management like planning, organizing, staffing, directing and ...

(CNO) for England and an executive/national director at

NHS England NHS England, officially the NHS Commissioning Board, is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health and Social Care. It oversees the budget, planning, delivery and day-to-day operation of the commissioning side of th ...

and

NHS Improvement NHS Improvement (NHSI) was a non-departmental body in England, responsible for overseeing the National Health Service's foundation trusts and NHS trusts, as well as independent providers that provide NHS-funded care. It supported providers to ...

where she is also the national director responsible for infection prevention and control.

Career

May began her career with a variety of nursing roles before becoming a theatre sister at

Frimley Park Hospital Frimley Park Hospital is a large general hospital in Frimley, Surrey. It is managed by Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust, and houses a private wing. History Frimley Park Hospital was opened to provide a full range of acute services to pat ...

in Surrey. She was subsequently acting Director of Nursing at Barnet Hospital in London before being appointed the substantive Director of Nursing and Deputy Chief Executive at Havering Primary Care Trust in North East London. In October 2005, May became Chief Executive of Queen Elizabeth Hospital,

King's Lynn King's Lynn, known until 1537 as Bishop's Lynn and colloquially as Lynn, is a port and market town in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk in the county of Norfolk, England. It is located north of London, north-east of Peterborough, ...

, a post she held for two years. She has also been Chief Executive of Mid-Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust. She also worked as Director of Nursing at

Monitor Monitor or monitor may refer to: Places * Monitor, Alberta * Monitor, Indiana, town in the United States * Monitor, Kentucky * Monitor, Oregon, unincorporated community in the United States * Monitor, Washington * Monitor, Logan County, West ...

from 2015 to 2016. From April 2016 to 2019 she served as executive director of nursing at

. She was appointed Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) for England on 7 January 2019, succeeding Jane Cummings. Her role came to public attention during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

. On one occasion during its early stages, she was driven to call for an end to the abuse of nurses by patients. She leads the NHS's "Stop the Pressure" campaign, to reduce the incidence of

pressure ulcer Pressure ulcers, also known as pressure sores, bed sores or pressure injuries, are localised damage to the skin and/or underlying tissue that usually occur over a bony prominence as a result of usually long-term pressure, or pressure in combi ...

s in hospital in-patients.

Honours and awards

May has received honorary doctorates from the

Anglia Ruskin University Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) is a public university in East Anglia, United Kingdom. Its origins are in the Cambridge School of Art, founded by William John Beamont in 1858. It became a university in 1992, and was renamed after John Ruskin in ...

in 2009, the

University of Suffolk The University of Suffolk is a public university situated in Suffolk and Norfolk, England. The modern university was established in 2007 as University Campus Suffolk (UCS), the institution was founded as a unique collaboration between the Univer ...

in 2016 and from

Coventry University , mottoeng = By Art and Industry , established = , type = Public , endowment = £28 million (2015) , budget = £787.5 million , chancellor = Margaret Casely-Hayford , vice_chancellor = John Latham , students = () , underg ...

"for her contribution as a national leader of nursing" in 2019. She became a Fellow of the

Queen's Nursing Institute The Queen's Nursing Institute (QNI) is a charity that works to improve the nursing care of people in their own homes in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. It does not operate in Scotland, where the Queen's Nursing Institute Scotland performs a ...

in 2020. She was appointed

Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

(DBE) in the

2022 Birthday Honours The 2022 Queen's Birthday Honours are appointments by some of the 15 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded as p ...

for services to nursing, midwifery and the NHS.

Personal life

She was born in

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

but has lived near

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colc ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

for most of the 21st century She has a daughter who was eight at the time of May's appointment as CNO.

References

External links

* *
2018 video
of May speaking about 'Stop the Pressure', on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:May, Ruth British nurses British nursing administrators Living people Place of birth missing (living people) NHS Chief Professional Officers 20th-century Welsh women 21st-century Welsh women 1967 births Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire National Health Service (England)