Past Chairs

I remember the first ever Respiratory Nurse Specialist meeting well. At time the majority of respiratory nurse specialists were based within secondary care and I thought that such meetings would be such a great forum for us to network!! How right I was!! I have made so many friends across the nations through ARNS!

I thoroughly enjoyed my time on the ARNS committee, and was honoured to have chaired the committee from 2007-2009. I followed in footsteps of some amazing nurses, who established ARNS and helped to grow its reputation and credibility.

I gained hugely professionally from being part of the committee and ultimately Chair of ARNS. It opened many doors for me from being part of the shadow NSF for COPD, being involved in writing the CPPD and Asthma Outcome strategy and being asked to be a Trustee of the British Lung Foundation.

My highlights of being chair include;

• Securing financial support from multi pharmaceutical companies. ARNS had been initially funded through an educational grant from Allen and Hanburys, but this ceased in around 2005. This resulted in the need to secure funding to keep ARNS going. I have very fond memories of meeting multiple pharmaceutical companies with Liz Walker!!
• The change in funding resulted in the need to write annual reports and business plans highlighting why we needed funding, how it would be used and what ARNS had achieved in the previous year.
• At a similar time, we changed secretariat. The BTS took over the secretariat role providing the use of the BTS offices for the committee meetings and enabling close working relationships.
• Organising and chairing the annual conference was hard work, yet fun, with the result being great conferences, with fantastic feedback.
• Being involved and influencing National  programmes of work.
• Working closely with our pharmaceutical sponsors was enjoyable. This influenced my personal professional development and offered opportunities to support and develop ARNS. 
• And finally but probably most importantly, having opportunity to demonstrate the value and uniqueness of nursing.

I was Chair of the Association of Respiratory Nurse Specialists (ARNS) between 2013-2015.  Welcome to the Association of Respiratory Nurse Specialists - YouTube

I initially joined ARNS to upskill and network with others. I then wanted to give more to the organisation and decided to leave my comfort zone and join the Committee, which finally led to becoming Chair (which was truly above what I’d originally intended!). I loved my time as Chair, representing Respiratory Nurses across the UK. This was a fantastic honour and gave me some great opportunities to develop, meet some incredible people and learn aspects of good governance to which I wouldn’t have been exposed. The Committee was an awe-inspiring group of nurses from across Ireland, Scotland, England, and Wales, who taught me a lot (made me laugh a lot, too!), and I always think of all of them and what they taught me.

I like to shake things up, and as a team, we all worked so hard to advance the reputation of both Nursing and ARNS. Several key issues at the time allowed us to strengthen the ARNS brand and reputation of the organisation, which we did by increasing our media presence and supporting campaigns with other organisations like the BLF. Additionally, during my chairmanship, ARNS sponsored the Respiratory Category at the Nursing Times Awards, where Nursing Teams were recognised for their innovative care.

We were also involved in many national high-profile works, including advising Public Health England on guidance, being the spokesperson for nursing on the National Asthma Deaths report, and representing nursing on all parliamentary reports.

In summary my reflections were – being a member of ARNS was a gift. Being chair was a bit of a whirl wind, juggling and learning so much, but I loved it.

I reflect on my eight years of being involved in the ARNS leadership as a time of positive evolution both for the association and myself. I remain a proud member and continue the mission to influence leadership and change for respiratory nurses and their patients. 

During my terms as both Vice-Chair and Chair we undertook a governance review of ARNS and led the transition to a non-for-profit organisation. This and the introduction of the sub-committees I can see has continued to thrive and demonstrates success both for activity and succession planning. I love hearing how ARNS grows from strength to strength, I’ve been a firm believer that it is an incubator for leaders within the speciality and beyond.

Being a chair of ARNS was helpful in my own personal career and my current UK role within the Royal College of Nursing is testimony to that. I continue to have an honorary Consultant Nurse post within the respiratory speciality and represent at a national, regional and local level. Now I have embarked on a doctorate journey with an international and advanced level nursing focus, I hope that I can continue to contribute to be an advocate for respiratory nursing as well as my wider portfolio.