Nurses Move focuses on improving nurse retention by strengthening how internationally educated nurses (and multicultural teams) are integrated, supported, and developed inside NHS Trusts and private healthcare organisations.
- Dina has built education channels through newsletters and podcasting that have reached 10,000+ nurses worldwide. Her private community now includes nearly 100 nurses and is developing a cohort of highly trained nurse career coaches.
- Dina published her first book, The Awakened Nurse, in December 2024, and continued refining the model while studying a Master’s in Nursing Studies, Leadership and Organisational Development.
- Nurses Move became a CPD provider in March 2026, enabling the innovation to be delivered as CPD-aligned professional development for NHS and private sector organisations to improve retention outcomes and reduce preventable churn.
Dina Paoloni is a nurse leader, NHS Clinical Entrepreneur, and Founder of Nurses Move, with over 23 years of international nursing experience and a background as an award‑winning ICU specialist. She is also an NHS AI Ambassador, HLA Mentor, and the author of The Awakened Nurse.
Dina’s work sits at the intersection of retention, leadership development, and workforce transformation. She supports NHS Trusts and private‑sector organisations to retain nursing talent by strengthening integration and team culture, and by equipping leaders and teams with cultural intelligence, emotional resilience, communication skills, and AI‑aware career development.
As a CPD provider and course creator, she delivers practical, structured learning experiences that translate directly into better team dynamics, stronger engagement, and more sustainable nursing careers.
Alongside her organisational work, Dina mentors experienced nurses who want to step into career coaching and education, helping them turn their expertise into impact, authority, and a business model that doesn’t cost them their health.
A recent APPG inquiry highlighted that the NHS has saved £14 billion through international recruitment *, yet those savings and workforce gains are undermined when organisations cannot retain the talent they have worked hard to recruit.
“As an internationally educated nurse myself, I know how quickly a highly skilled nurse can shift from motivated to survival mode when integration is inconsistent, especially in high-pressure environments and multicultural teams. Over time, I saw the same preventable drivers of attrition surface again and again: burnout, isolation, loss of confidence, team conflict, stalled progression, and early exits.”
Dina Poloni, Clinical Entrepreneur Cohort 8.
Dina’s project tackles a critical gap: retention is rarely about clinical competence. It’s about what happens after arrival – structured integration, psychological safety, communication in multicultural teams, leadership behaviours, and clear progression pathways. Through a structured, CPD‑aligned approach, Dina delivers practical training and leadership support in team dynamics, cultural intelligence, emotional resilience, communication, and AI readiness.
Her work ensures nurses feel safer, valued, and able to progress and gives leaders a clear, repeatable strategy to reduce avoidable attrition, strengthen engagement, and protect nursing excellence.
Dina also welcomes partnerships with NHS and private sector recruitment agencies as a post-placement retention and integration partner: strengthening outcomes after hire, improving retention outcomes, and reducing preventable churn for Trusts, providers, and agencies. This approach enables agencies to expand their service offering and protect the long‑term value of every placement.
Impact
Dina’s innovation is designed to improve retention by strengthening integration, psychological safety, and performance in multicultural nursing teams. This ensures nurses are more likely to stay, progress, and thrive, while organisations reduce avoidable workforce costs.
Before developing her Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Dina spoke with hundreds of nurses and formally interviewed 53 of them to identify the most consistent barriers to integration and long‑term retention. These insights directly shaped her MVP, which went on to generate 20 high‑ticket clients, validating both the need and the demand for a structured solution. Through her education channels, Dina has reached more than 10,000 nurses worldwide, and her private community now includes nearly 100 nurses, expanding capacity to scale support through a growing cohort of trained nurse career coaches.
For NHS Trusts and private providers, the benefits are practical and measurable: reduced preventable churn, fewer “firefighting” pressures on leaders, and improved team stability. Critically, by improving integration and reducing avoidable stressors that drive burnout, the model is intended to reduce sickness absence and lower training and onboarding expenses linked to repeatedly inducting and training new staff due to turnover.
“I met Dina Paoloni after deciding to move abroad to work as a nurse. I was seeking reliable, professional advice and guidance. My biggest challenge was finding my way and building a path that truly suited me. I now work as a Band 5 ICU nurse, exactly where I hoped to be and where I intend to build my career. Every step of the journey was supported by the guidance I received from Dina Paoloni, through her book The Awakened Nurse and, more recently, the ‘Nurses Move Career Coaching Community’.”
Flavia Cotza, Nurses Move Community Member.
Similarly, Dina has supported Gertrude Orodo, another internationally educated nurse and career coach, by mentoring her through the Successful Career Coach Programme, currently progressing through CPD accreditation, and by supporting her application to the NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme. “I was delighted to hear Gertrude has joined Cohort 10 of the NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme. These collaborations matter because they build a growing network of internationally educated, nurse‑led innovators who can extend the reach and delivery capacity of retention‑focused work across the UK and internationally,” said Dina Paoloni.
“As an internationally educated nurse, I went through a challenging journey transitioning and settling into the NHS. That experience inspired me to start a coaching business to support other internationally educated nurses. I am currently undertaking Dina’s Nurse Career Coach programme, and it has been incredibly insightful and practical. The one-to-one coaching sessions have been especially powerful. They’ve given me a safe space to reflect, unpack challenges, and get tailored support.”
Getrude Orodo, Nurse Career Coach Community Member.
After joining the NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme (CEP) in 2023, Dina was thrilled to become part of a community of like-minded entrepreneurs in the health sector. “The CEP community has had a strong impact on both me and my innovation by providing a supportive, high-trust network for peer learning, confidence-building, and practical testing of my messaging. As an internationally educated nurse and entrepreneur working in a second language, the encouragement and feedback from peers during pit stops and informal conversations helped me refine how I communicate the innovation to senior NHS and private sector audiences. The community also created tangible opportunities for collaboration and visibility” said Dina Paoloni.
“The NHS CEP helps you become ready by testing your assumptions and strengthening your confidence as a Clinical Entrepreneur.”
Dina Paoloni.
Dina has experienced significant personal and professional growth through the CEP, helping turn what began as a coaching-led solution into a clearer, testable innovation that can be positioned for NHS Trusts and the private sector with measurable outcomes. The comprehensive learning from each Pit Stop has boosted her confidence and strengthened a different part of her work: moving it from insight and experience into a structured, scalable model that leaders can understand, fund, and implement.
“The Welcome and Lean Canvas sessions helped me clarify the problem I’m solving, define the primary users and buyers, and articulate the value proposition in a way that is operationally relevant, not just inspirational. The Communications, Branding and Marketing pit stop helped me reposition the innovation for a senior audience, using language that resonates with CEOs and nurse leaders. Pitching and mentoring has sharpened my delivery: I can now explain the innovation quickly, handle stakeholder objections, and present a clear “why now” narrative. Finally, public speaking and networking increased my confidence and visibility, helping me build relationships and open doors for pilot opportunities” says Dina Paoloni.
Collaboration with other Clinical Entrepreneurs has also played a meaningful role in how Dina has developed both her innovation and her identity as a nurse‑led entrepreneur. “One key collaboration that directly strengthened my innovation was inviting Dr Giovannie Jean‑Louis onto my podcast to highlight the importance of her work in clinical trials. That conversation has grown into an ongoing relationship. I’ve also collaborated with Aman Sharma, who interviewed me on his YouTube channel. We share a similar innovation direction. His work focuses on healthcare professionals broadly, while mine is specifically centred on nurses. That exchange helped me sharpen my positioning, clarify what is unique about a nurse‑specific approach to integration, leadership, and retention, and we’re planning to continue the collaboration by inviting him onto my podcast.” said Dina Paoloni.
Looking to the future
Looking ahead, Dina is focused on scaling impact through formal NHS implementation, strengthening quality assurance, and contributing to national and international conversations on retention. A key ambition for Dina is to pursue a potential collaboration with NHS InSite to secure and deliver a pilot programme, generating measurable evidence on retention outcomes, sickness absence reduction, and reduced repeated onboarding and training burden across teams.
In parallel, Dina plans to progress additional programmes through CPD accreditation, building a consistent, high-quality professional development pathway that is credible for NHS Trusts and private sector providers.
Dina also aims to strengthen the evidence and thought-leadership base of the innovation through publication, including an article on the future of nursing at the intersection of AI, climate change, and generational change, and a further article focused on nursing leadership, team dynamics, and retention.
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