Bethann Siviter (born 1963) is a British Registered Nurse originally from the United States; in the few years she has been in the UK, she has become a well-known nursing author, speaker and advocate for nursing students, healthcare assistants and the art of nursing practice. The author of a best selling textbook soon to go into a second edition, Mrs. Siviter overcame sudden illness and resulting disability to return to work in the demanding role of Nurse Consultant. Not content to simply return to the job she loves, she has used her experiences to highlight both problems in the healthcare service, as well as the importance of the role of healthcare assistant and the capability of people with disabilities. First coming to the UK in 1999, she became a British citizen in 2006.
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She was inducted into the International Nursing Honor Society in recognition of her leadership and contribution to nursing Sigma Theta Tau in 2006.
She belongs to the Royal College of Nursing as a steward. She has also been involved in the British Geriatric Society.
While completing her nurse education at the University of Central England, she started working as a student activist on the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Association of Nursing Students(ANS) National Executive as West Midlands representative, eventually becoming Chair of the RCN ANS(2001–2002) and Student Member of RCN Council (2002–2003). She qualified with commendation as an Adult Registered Nurse in 2002, and received a BSc (hons) in Specialist Community Practice/ District Nursing from the University of Wolverhampton in 2003. It was during this time and as a result of difficulties in her own preparation as a nurse as well as feedback from students received in her role on the ANS that she began to write the Student Nurse Handbook in an attempt to offer support and information for other preregistration nursing students.
Her first post was as a District Nurse Team Leader (2003) in a nurse-led General Practice; in this role she started a new District Nursing team integrated within a proactive and progressive practice; she then became a Nurse Consultant in community care and the care of older people in 2005 at South Birmingham Primary Care Trust.
In 2004, the book "The Student Nurse Handbook" was published by Elsevier, followed in 2008 by "The Newly Qualified Nurse's Handbook" and a second edition of the "The Student Nurse Handbook". She also did the cover art for Tracey Levett-Jones' second edition of "The Clinical Placement: A nursing survival guide", also by Elsevier.
She writes about the impact of developing a disability and returning to work after long illness, on the importance of care by healthcare assistants and is a contributor to journals on student nurse issues as well as being a contributor to the RCN's "Statement of Principles on Nurse Education".
She has a regular perspectives column in Primary Health Care a Nursing Standard family journal.
Bethann also presents at seminars and is a regular contributor at RCN Congress (the annual meeting of the Royal College of Nursing). Her most popular seminar is "Transitioning from Student to Staff Nurse", a motivational seminar intended to help nursing students through the traumatic transition from education to employment.[1][2]
Mrs Siviter is increasingly becoming known for her work as an advocate for disabled people, herself becoming disabled as a the result of an illness in 2006. She is editor of the RCN Work Injured Nurses' Group (WING) forum newsletter, and has been appointed to the "Nursing and Midwifery Council"'s (NMC) Professional Practice and Registration Committee (2009–2011) and is on the NMC's expert panel on disability as well as on the British Standards Group Disability Expert Reference Group.