10/08/2026
📣 Pleased to share a new publication from a critically reflective leadership journey.
We are delighted to share the article, “Strengthening Retention and Career Development in Urology Clinic Nurse Specialists: A Critically Reflective Leadership Project” by Ana Filipa Goncalves Semedo.
Workforce retention is a significant challenge within specialist nursing, where continuity, expertise and strong professional relationships are essential to delivering high-quality patient care. This project explored what was contributing to workforce instability within a specialist urology cancer nursing team and, importantly, what leadership could do differently.
Through exit interviews, reflective leadership discussions, staff feedback and workforce data, four key drivers of turnover emerged: limited career progression, inconsistent recognition, structural role ambiguity, and unclear pathway ownership.
These insights informed a series of leadership interventions focused on career development, mentorship, recognition, role clarity, performance management, team cohesion and psychological safety. Encouragingly, over the following 6–12 months, voluntary resignations reduced from five to one, alongside reported improvements in morale, role clarity, team cohesion, continuity of care and perceived organisational support.
This project reinforced that effective leadership is not simply about managing services — it is about listening, understanding the system, recognising people’s contributions, creating opportunities for growth, and building an environment where specialist nurses can thrive.
Ana Semedo is the Lead Uro-Oncology Clinical Nurse Specialist at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, a world-leading cancer centre in the United Kingdom. She has contributed nationally to advancing evidence-based cancer care through her leadership roles with NICE.
🧐Read the publication: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ijun.70051
