Bridie Harbon

Quality Assurance Lead for Scotland and Northern Ireland | Defence Primary Healthcare | BSc(Hons) | Senior Primary Care Nurse Band 7 

As a highly skilled and dedicated healthcare professional, I bring extensive experience in the leadership and management of nursing teams, while excelling at hands-on clinical roles in primary care services. 

In my current managerial role, I coordinate and manage quality assurance systems across Defence Primary Healthcare in Scotland and Northern Ireland, ensuring the effective application of healthcare governance and assurance activities. I plan and lead internal assurance reviews against the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) Key Lines of Enquiry, oversee the development of Practice Action Plans and responses to CQC Enforcement Notices, and ensure that lessons learned from patient safety incidents are shared and embedded across the organisation to ensure compliance. My responsibilities include analysing assurance systems to identify trends, drive quality improvement, and promote a culture of safety and continuous learning, with outcomes shared to inform future service enhancements.

I am actively involved in supporting the education, training, and development of healthcare teams, delivering training in patient safety, clinical audit, and quality improvement. This is supported by my SLAiPmentorship qualification and my experience as a Cytology Assessor. Combining extensive clinical experience with current proficiency in strategic healthcare governance, I am committed to fostering a culture of excellence, transparency, and continuous learning. I amprofessionally registered and actively engage in ongoing professional development to ensure my knowledge and skills remain current. My ability to manage complex assurance systems while effectively communicating and collaborating with clinical leads and stakeholders across a geographically diverse area, enables me to successfully support the delivery of high-quality care.

In my clinical capacity, I deliver a comprehensive range of nursing services within primary care. I hold a certificate in Asthma Management and am spirometry trained and registered with the Association for Respiratory Technology and Physiology (ARTP). My clinical practice includes delivering national vaccination programmes, including childhood immunisations; providing complex travel health assessments and advice; and undertaking wound care, phlebotomy, audiometry, ear irrigation, and formal medical screenings. I assist in family planning clinics, including coil and implant procedures, and lead chronic disease monitoring and recall.

I also undertake mental health assessments using recognised frameworks and provide step-one interventions. My expertise extends to cytology, where I run clinics in my role as a cytology assessor, as well as smoking cessation clinics, providing nicotine replacement therapy (NRT). I am competent in sexual health assessments and follow-up care. In addition, I manage daily e-consult triage assessments, oversee new patient registrations, conduct duty nurse clinics, and facilitate mentorship debriefs. I oversee the review of blood test results and sample processing, alongside a broad range of administrative responsibilities, including management of nursing team tasks, maintenance of complex military deployment spreadsheets, execution of primary care patient searches, and completion of Popman/QOF checks.

I am also directly responsible for carrying out compliance activities to ensure clinical governance standards are effectively implemented and robustly monitored. This includes temperature monitoring, equipment checks, Patient Group Direction (PGD) reviews, and clinical audits. I actively participate in clinical supervision, including nursing, practice, multidisciplinary team (MDT), and governance meetings, contributing to the continuous improvement of patient care. My role demands a high level of organisation, leadership, and clinical expertise, and I consistently deliver safe, effective, and patient-centred care.