Sarah Kearney
Chair of Therapy Sub Committee
Prescribing Lead
I have worked as a Respiratory Nurse Specialist on the Isle of Wight since 1998. I jointly manage the respiratory department, share clinical leadership with our consultant and work closely with the CCG lead GP to lead a local respiratory network. I had my post ‘badged’ by the BLF in August 2010 and my clinical work is almost entirely in the community supporting patients to stay at home and developing self-management plans. I am the service lead for home oxygen and assessment and see patients for both assessment and review; follow up visits after acute admissions and provide palliative care. I lead a small multi- disciplinary team whose main focus is COPD and pulmonary rehabilitation, although we see any non-malignant respiratory disease.
In 2010 I worked for one day a week with South Central SHA as a clinical fellow, supporting Maxine Hardinge on the National Strategy and sat on the regional respiratory board. I recently participated as an assessor for the RCP pulmonary rehabilitation accreditation pilot project.
I have been a member of ARNS for many years and joined the Executive Committee in 2016.
Iain Wheatley
Vice Chair of Therapy Sub Committee
Sleep and Ventilation Lead
Iain qualified as a nurse in 1996 after a short career in the military and worked in general medicine before becoming a critical care nurse and developing the role as part of what was then the new critical care outreach team. With critical care skills Iain set up the Medical Acute Dependency Unit and later set up the Sleep and ventilation service. In 2005 he achieved an MSc with Merit in advanced Nursing Practice and subsequently published research on level one patient observations. In 2007 Iain completed his V300 Non-medical prescribing qualification, and has other qualifications including a Dip in management, sleep and ventilation and spirometry. Iain is the non-medical prescribing lead, as well as the lead for the level 6 and 7 degree respiratory course for his Trust. He has published and presented papers on various aspects of sleep and ventilation. Currently Iain is a Nurse Consultant for acute and respiratory care managing teams including, Sleep and Ventilation, Health Improvement (alcohol and smoking cessation), Tuberculosis specialist nurses and the Respiratory Specialist nurses.
Iain is the Sub Committee member lead for sleep and ventilation for the Therapy committee for the Association of Respiratory Nurse Specialists (ARNS). He is a committee member of the local respiratory network Kent Surrey and Sussex allied health Science, as well as a member of the Clinical Reference group for Respiratory specialist commissioning, a member of the NICE sleep disordered breathing committee, and has worked with NCEPOD on the Non-invasive Ventilation Inspiring Change (2017).
Ruth Thomas
Pulmonary Rehabilitation Lead
Ruth Thomas is a respiratory nurse in Milton Keynes, dividing her time between practice nursing, lead for community pulmonary rehabilitation and as a nurse specialist in a primary care outpatient respiratory service. She runs a local respiratory interest group affiliated to PCRS-UK and has also developed training on behalf of the International primary Care Respiratory Group as well as Education for Health. She is on the editorial board for the PCRU journal as well as having a voluntary role as BLF nurse, Milton Keynes.
Ruth has been involved in many local respiratory projects and is passionate about patients receiving an accurate diagnosis, evidence –based education and management and loves her job so much in pulmonary rehabilitation she is now a qualified level 2 fitness instructor. Another interested is functional breathing and is a Buteyko Breathing Practitioner as well as being on the committee for the Buteyko Breathing Association.
Jo Riley
Oxygen Lead
Jo qualified as a nurse in 1986, and after working in general medicine for her first job, moved into respiratory medicine after a year, and has spent all bar 3 years of the next 32 years working in Respiratory medicine. This included ward based work, out-reach and community roles.
In 2000 Jo set up the Respiratory outreach service in the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals. Over the following 10 years the service developed to becoming a county wide respiratory service, with hospital in-reach, home oxygen service and Pulmonary rehabilitation all integrated within the service.
During the past 20 years, Jo has undertaken and then gone on to teach on a number of respiratory courses including modules for Education For Health, and was part of a team taking the Asthma module to Bangladesh to upskill their doctors in asthma management.
In the past 9 months, Jo has been the nurse clinical lead for a project further integrating respiratory services across primary, secondary and community care in Oxford City and North Oxfordshire – the project aims to improve identification and management of respiratory conditions and improve patients quality of life at all stages of their disease whilst reducing hospital admissions and readmissions.
Jo Has been involved in ARNS from its beginning, holding the post of treasurer initially, and then later becoming ARNS Chair, and after a spell off the committee is now a member of the ARNS Therapy Sub-committee. Jo is also a member of the BTS, ERS, PCRS.
Yvonne MacNicol
Smoking Cessation Lead
Yvonne MacNicol is a fully qualified nurse who has worked in the field of Smoking Cessation and Tobacco Prevention and Protection since 2005. During this time Yvonne has worked in both the hospital and the community supporting patients to stop smoking. In the last six years, while working for the NHS, her focus was on partnership working, community development and capacity building using asset-based approaches to deliver tobacco prevention and protection. Working in collaboration with key partners in the public, private and third sector, has provided vital experience when aiming to lessen health inequalities through locality working. Yvonne has over 12 years’ experience promoting health and wellbeing in areas of deprivation, with a hard to reach client group. Following the completion of her MSc in Public Health and Health Promotion, Yvonne was invited to attend the British Thoracic Society Winter conference to deliver a poster presentation of her abstract entitled ‘Investigating changes in parents’ perceptions and attitudes of smoking in the home after a second-hand smoke educational intervention in nurseries.’
Currently Yvonne holds the position of lecturer in adult nursing at the University of the West of Scotland but is still involved in tobacco as a current a member of the Scottish Tobacco-free Alliance Council. The Scottish Tobacco-free Alliance Council is a forum allowing for the exchange of information, discussion and collaboration on all aspects of tobacco and Scotland’s Public Health Priority 4 and its impact on health and inequalities. It also allows those working in tobacco a platform to influence the development of policy across Scotland.
Our Team
Executive Committee
Respiratory Disease
Sub Committee
Research and Education
Sub Committee