Anne Marie Rafferty

Anne Marie Rafferty, Baroness Rafferty (born 7 May 1958 ) is a British nurse, academic and researcher. She is the professor of nursing policy and the former dean of the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery and Palliative Care at King's College London. She served as President of the Royal College of Nursing from 2019 to 2021.

She is a fellow of the Royal College of Nursing, and the Academy of Medical Sciences. and a member of the Parliamentary Review of Health and Social Care in Wales which reported in 2018. She is a current member of the NHS Assembly. In 2020, she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for services to nursing. Rafferty attended St Marie's Primary School and St Andrew's High School, both in Kirkcaldy, Fife. She graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1982 with a BSc in nursing studies. which has been adopted by the hospital outcomes research network in Europe. She stood down as Dean in September 2011 to become Director of Academic Outreach. Rafferty has subsequently been co-director of the Wellcome Centre for Humanities and Health and is currently co-director of the Health and Social Care Workforce Policy Research Unit at King's College London.

In 2008, Rafferty was seconded to the Department of Health to advise on nursing policy for the then Minister of Health Lord Ara Darzi and the Chief Nursing Officer Professor Dame Christine Beasley during the Next Stage Review of the NHS. In 2009, she served on the Prime Minister's Commission on the Future of Nursing and Midwifery. Rafferty co-led the Student Commission on the Future of the NHS which was supported by NHS England, and was a member of the Parliamentary Review of Health and Social Care in Wales which reported in 2018. and 2021.

Rafferty holds honorary appointments at the University of Pennsylvania and Poly University, Hong Kong. She is visiting professor at the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) funded Patient Safety Translational Research Centre at the Imperial Healthcare NHS Trust. Rafferty holds honorary doctorates from the University of Dundee and University of East Anglia. Rafferty is the founding director and President of the European Nursing Research Foundation. and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2020 Birthday Honours for services to nursing. Rafferty holds fellowships from Royal College of Nursing (2002), and the American Academy of Nursing (2011). She is also a Fellow of King's College London where she has been the professor of nursing policy since 2004.

Rafferty has been the recipient of various awards including the Nursing Times Leadership Award in 2014 and Health Services Journal Top 100 Clinical Leaders Award in 2015. She was inducted onto the Sigma Theta Tau International Hall of Fame in 2016 and in 2017 Rafferty was nominated as one of the 70 most influential nurses in the first 70 years of the National Health Service.

Rafferty was nominated by Keir Starmer for a life peerage on 20 December 2024 as part of the 2024 Political Peerages. She was created Baroness Rafferty, of Kirkcaldy in the County of Fife on 10 February 2025.