Professor Donna Fitzsimons is currently Head of the School of Nursing & Midwifery & Member of Senate in Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland. She is a Chair of the European Society of Cardiology Advocacy Committee (2022-24) and past ESC Board Member (2014-2020) where she led Patient Involvement activities and pioneered the establishment of the ESC Patient Form. She was previously Chair of the ESC Council on Cardiovascular Nursing & Allied Professionals (2011-2013) and led its transition to become an Association within the Society in 2020. As a member of the ESC Clinical Practice Guidelines Committee (2014-20), she led work on involving patients in Guideline development and review, as well as enhancing nurses' role in Guideline Implementation.
As a researcher, Donna’s work focuses on enhancing cardiovascular care pathways and treatment outcomes by developing an enhanced understanding of patient and family experience and needs. She currently leads national and international research projects in cardiovascular prevention, heart failure and arrhythmia management. She sits on several grant funding committees and editorial boards. Her research influences practice and she is highly (90K+) cited, with more than 200 academic papers and a h-Index of 51.
Within her tenure, the capacity and reputation of the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Queen’s University Belfast has been enhanced, it is firmly in the top 100 Schools of Nursing Worldwide and was ranked 4th in the UK in the 2022 Research Assessment Exercise. Professor Fitzsimons' interdisciplinary working and professional leadership demonstrates her commitment to improving the quality of patient care through education and research.
