Anne Jarvie CBE is Chief Nursing Officer/Director of Nursing at the Scottish Executive (formerly the Scottish Office) Health Department, a post she has held since February 1992. For three years prior to taking up this appointment she held the post of Deputy Chief Nursing Officer at the Scottish Office, and various managerial and clinical posts before that.

In her present post she advises ministers in all matters relating to nursing, midwifery and health visiting in Scotland, and is responsible for purchasing pre-registration nursing and midwifery education from the Higher Education Sector in Scotland.

Miss Jarvie trained as a RGN (Registered General Nurse) in Glasgow Royal Infirmary and as a RM (Registered Midwife) in Cresswell Maternity Hospital, Dumfries.

She led the development of the document A Framework for Maternity Services in Scotland and supported the Expert Group on Acute Maternity Services (EGAMS). In the course of this work, the training needs of midwives working in midwife-delivered care units were identified. Appropriate programmes to meet these needs have been developed, and midwives are now having the opportunity to access them. The role of the midwife in ‘normality’ has been re-established and accepted by the multidisciplinary team. She led the development of the Strategy for Nursing and Midwifery in Scotland, Caring for Scotland, and the review of the contribution made by nurses and midwives to the public’s health, Nursing for Health, both launched in March 2001. She led the development of Choices and Challenges: The Strategy for Research and Development in Nursing and Midwifery in Scotland (2002).

Miss Jarvie is an Honorary Doctor of Laws of Dundee University, an Honorary Doctor of Education of Robert Gordon University, an Honorary Doctor of Nursing Napier University, and Honorary Doctor of Science of Glasgow Caledonian University and an Honorary Degree of Doctor of the University of Stirling. She is an Honorary Member of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine. She was awarded the CBE in the Queen's New Year Honours List in 2000.