This Reserves Day, East Cheshire NHS Trust is celebrating Zoe Starmer-Hudson, our Chief Nursing Information Officer who also serves as a Captain in the Army Reserves. From leading digital transformation at Macclesfield District General Hospital to deploying to a remote base in Afghanistan, Zoe balances her vital civilian career with a military role focused on primary care.
Read below as she shares what inspired her to join, how she manages high-stakes environments, and why leadership under pressure matters in both the NHS and the Armed Forces.
Her initial inspiration to join the military was sparked during her childhood. "I loved watching M.A.S.H. on TV as a child and really wanted to experience that adventure and camaraderie. It looked like they were doing meaningful work," Zoe shares.
"I also saw the Armenian earthquake on TV when I was ten years old and felt compelled to go and help. This sparked my interest in disaster relief and humanitarian medicine. I also enjoyed an active lifestyle and learning new skills and challenging myself."
As the Trust's Chief Nursing Information Officer and Clinical Safety Officer, Zoe leads on digital transformation, helping to bring technology into our hospitals to improve patient and staff safety as well as overall productivity.
Alongside her vital civilian work, she also serves as a nursing officer with the rank of Captain in the Reserve Forces, having joined back in 2000 while studying at the University of Liverpool. Drawing on her clinical background as an Advanced Nurse Practitioner, her military role focuses heavily on primary care. "This involves establishing primary care facilities in order to treat soldiers," she explains.
For Zoe, the environments of the NHS and the military are deeply linked, with both demanding the exact same high-stakes capabilities.
"Both involve you having to work under stress. You need to be able to respond quickly and often think outside the box," Zoe says.
"You also need to stay calm in often stressful situations and take a step back to fully understand and appreciate what the situation is and what needs to be done to resolve it. Both roles have required stamina and resilience and busy workloads that I have to be able to prioritise and manage.
"They both involve levels of leadership. I remember someone once saying, ‘would you follow you?’ This makes you think about your effectiveness. I believe it’s something anyone in a leadership role should be asking themselves regularly."
The true test of that resilience and leadership came in 2007, when Zoe spent four months deployed to a remote Forward Operating Base (FOB) in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.
"I was still quite new to primary care working as an Advanced Nurse Practitioner," Zoe reflects. "I was sent out to a Forward Operating Base which is a small remote military station. I was the sole provider of health care for the 40+ troops based there. It was a steep learning curve. We had regular mortar and sniper attacks but luckily no serious injuries.
"We did have two local adolescents arrive at the gates of the compound who had been badly burnt, and I had to manage their care until we were able to evacuate the worst case back to Camp Bastion in the main camp.
"Afghanistan was an incredible experience. It taught me autonomy, courage, resilience and leadership skills," Zoe says. "Every day I was humbled by the bravery of the young men I was serving alongside."
Found a problem? Report it and help us to improve our website