Spotlight on Nicky Smart

When legal cases involve community-based nursing, including district nursing, urgent care at home, or the management of complex long-term conditions, the input of a clinically grounded, well-informed expert is essential. Understanding the realities of frontline care is key to assessing whether standards were met. We’re pleased to introduce Nicky Smart, a newly trained nursing expert witness with Apex Experts, whose extensive clinical and leadership background in community healthcare makes her a strong addition to our panel.

Nicky brings over a decade of clinical experience to her new medico-legal role. She’s worked in A&E, led district nursing teams, managed caseloads as a Community Matron, and prescribed care as an Independent Nurse Prescriber. With Apex’s ongoing support, she’s transitioning into expert witness practice, combining practical nursing insight with medico-legal understanding.

A Deep Understanding of Community Nursing

Nicky Smart is an experienced Registered Nurse and Community Matron with over a decade of post-registration practice in both acute and community settings. Her background includes emergency medicine, district nursing, and urgent community response.

She has delivered care across home visits, residential and nursing homes, and community clinics, managing patients with complex long-term conditions, coordinating end-of-life care, and leading efforts to reduce avoidable hospital admissions. As a Community Matron, she has worked autonomously handling medication, prescribed independently, liaised with GPs and social care teams, led multidisciplinary meetings, and managed risk in often unpredictable home-based environments.

Her clinical knowledge is complemented by a practical understanding of lone working, caseload pressures, multi-agency collaboration, and patient safety, all of which directly inform her role as a nursing expert witness.

Why instruct Nicky Smart?

Nicky brings extensive, hands-on clinical knowledge to her developing expert witness practice, with a particular focus on community and district nursing care. While she continues to work in frontline services, she is now also available to provide independent, clinically informed opinion to support legal professionals handling nursing-related claims.

Her areas of expertise include the management of long-term conditions such as diabetes, COPD, and heart failure; advanced wound care and pressure ulcer prevention (including VAC therapy); and end-of-life planning, palliative support, and syringe driver management. She also has substantial experience in PEG feeding, nutritional care, and working within NHS 111 and Urgent Community Response teams.

Nicky is well-versed in safeguarding, falls prevention, and complex care in both home and care home environments. In addition, her V300 Independent Prescribing qualification enables her to advise on medication management and prescribing standards.

She combines this clinical experience with a methodical, impartial approach. Nicky places strong emphasis on accuracy, clear communication, and professional integrity, with a focus on delivering evidence-based insight to assist legal teams and the court in understanding complex care delivery.

Training and Support from Apex Experts

At Apex Experts, we don’t just recruit clinicians, we invest in them. As a newly trained expert witness, Nicky is benefiting from a structured development pathway designed to support her transition into the medico-legal field with confidence.

Our onboarding programme includes hands-on guidance with case analysis, CPR-compliant report structure, medico-legal terminology, and the legal principles underpinning expert evidence. We provide access to standardised templates, worked examples, one-to-one support, and ongoing quality assurance so that every expert we work with is fully prepared before taking on instructions.

Nicky continues to receive close mentorship, regular check-ins, and full administrative support, ensuring she has everything she needs to develop into a strong, well-supported expert witness. At Apex, we believe that the right training and infrastructure make all the difference and we’re proud to offer that foundation to every member of our panel.

When to Instruct Nicky

Nicky is a great choice for cases involving:

• Alleged failures in district or community nursing

• Delays or omissions in wound care, pressure ulcer management, or safeguarding

• Concerns about medication administration or prescribing

• End-of-life care and decision-making in the community

• Documentation, escalation, or breakdowns in multi-agency communication

She works with both Claimant and Defendant firms and is always focused on staying balanced, objective, and helpful.

A Fresh, Reliable Expert Voice

Nicky may be new to expert witness work but she’s far from new to nursing, accountability, or professional standards. She’s already shown that she’s capable, reliable, and responsive, and she’s backed by a team at Apex Experts who are here to support quality, compliance, and clinical accuracy in every case.

If you’re looking for someone who understands the complexities of modern community care and can bring a grounded, informed perspective to your case, Nicky is an excellent choice.

Want to Know More?

If you’d like to see Nicky’s CV or check her availability, we’re happy to help however we can. Get in touch with us at info@apexexperts.co.uk, read more about becoming an expert witness, or give us a call on 0203 633 2213