Emma has worked in the mental health arena since 1993 and qualified as a mental health nurse in 1997. She has worked on a range of psychiatric intensive care units and dementia care wards in Cornwall and Cheltenham as a staff nurse and then a charge nurse. She then worked for a few years running a Nursing Home in Bude, before taking up a post as community Parkinson’s Specialist Nurse in 2010.

Emma has enjoyed teaching on the Southwest Parkinson’s degree module, Advanced practitioner modules, various conferences and local teaching for her employers. In 2019, she took up a post in Plymouth as a Community Parkinson’s nurse and redesigned the service to incorporate changes brought about by the pandemic and the introduction of Home based using digital technology. She has been an independent prescriber since 2015.

In 2021, following the death of a patient to suicide, Emma decided to find out more about this subject and how it relates to Parkinson’s by taking on a secondment with the training team as the suicide prevention lead for Livewell Southwest. She plans to return to Parkinson’s nursing in 2024.