Sue Tranka Chief Nursing Officer

Sue Tranka was appointed as the Chief Nursing Officer for Wales and Nurse Director of NHS Wales in the summer of 2021. She was formerly the Deputy Chief Nursing Officer for Patient Safety and Innovation at NHS England and Improvement from January 2020 and also held the role of Director of Infection prevention and control leading the national team in its response to supporting guidance development, implementation and remobilisation of NHS services. Protecting staff and patients from nosocomial transmission of COVID has been a key focus of her work since the start of the pandemic.

Sue has 29 years of varied experience in nursing and has spent the last 22 years working in the National Health Service. Sue trained as a midwife, registered general nurse, mental health nurse and community nurse. Sue’s career has spanned both operational and clinical leadership roles. Her passion for patient safety and quality improvement culminated in her establishing and leading a Critical Care Outreach team in a North London hospital. Sue‘s nurse consultant and leadership roles have predominantly focussed in the safety arena and she has a strong interest in quality improvement, human factors and safety systems.

More recently she has held a Board level role as an Executive Chief Nurse in a provider organisation. She was made an honorary visiting professor by the University of Surrey and has established links with Staffordshire University as a professional advisor on human factors programmes.

In October 2020, Sue was listed among the Health Service Journal’s 50 most influential people in health from a black, Asian and minority ethnic background, and in December 2021 was awarded a fellowship of the Queen’s Nursing Institute.