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Maria has worked in respiratory medicine since qualifying as a registered nurse (RN) in 2010. She began her career on an acute respiratory ward, becaming a senior nurse within 18 months of qualifying . She then gained experience a research nurse before becoming a respiratory nurse specialist in 2014, working within the local Integrated COPD team. She developed a standardised method to implement COPD care bundles for patients being admitted to hospital.
She began working in Primary care within the private sector as a respiratory nurse advisor. This allowed Maria to work within different ICBs, providing mentorship and education for practice nurses, GPs and other allied health professionals. She regularly delivered respiratory education modules on a 1:1 basis and in larger groups. She jointly developed a pathway for acute asthma admissions to ensure appropriate review with a respiratory nurse specialist post discharge. This aimed to reduce the likelihood of re-admission to hospital and referring patients who were suitable to the Difficult Asthma / Severe Asthma service at University of Southampton Hospital Foundation Trust.
Maria is currently working as a clinical respiratory nurse specialist & non-medical prescriber at a large Primary Care Network (PCN) in Southampton. She has played a pivotal role in the implementation of a new respiratory pathway, which includes the re-introduction of Spirometry post COVID19. She supports and mentors practice nurses and HCAs within the PCN as well as providing reviews for complex respiratory patients with multiple co-morbidities. She also works closely within the Urgent Care Team alongside Advanced Nurse Practitioners to deliver urgent reviews for respiratory patients, providing acute care and further optimisation of their treatment.
Maria has completed level 6 and 7 courses in COPD, Asthma, Respiratory Diagnostics and Non-Medical Prescribing. She is also a previous winner of the Association of Respiratory Nurses (ARNS) Respiratory Rising Star award in 2016. She is currently the Diagnostics lead within the Diagnosis & Therapy Sub-Committee for ARNS and has full ARTP accreditation in performing & interpreting spirometry in adults. She has recently been appointed by Asthma & Lung UK as "Respiratory Champion" for Hampshire and Isle of Wight (HIOW) ICB. She is part of the “Southampton City Airways Forum” committee and is passionate about improving and maintaining communication links between Primary, Secondary and Tertiary care.
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Donna is a respiratory advanced clinical practitioner working at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. She is passionate about improving lung health and reducing inequalities in respiratory health care.
Donna qualified as a nurse in 2003 going on to work across several specialities in acute medicine. In 2004 Donna became a critical Care nurse going on to deliver teaching in Acute Illness Management and obtaining a PG Cert in adult education before working as a critical care outreach sister. After a period working as Matron, supporting respiratory services whilst completing a Diploma in leadership and management, Donna went on to complete a master’s degree in advanced clinical Practice within acute medicine in 2022.
Donna currently works as the respiratory ACP lead and clinical lead for the respiratory virtual ward at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals. Her clinical role focuses on the acute management of patients presenting with a respiratory condition with a focus on acute asthma and COPD. Donna has closely supported work with the Trust tobacco and nicotine dependency teams to support an uptake in these services and is keen to improve outcomes for patient through engagement with these teams.
Donna supports the British Thoracic Society quality improvement committee and Respiratory Advanced Clinical practitioner network, as committee a member on both.
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Qualifying as an RGN in Birmingham in 1985, Elaine worked in a number of medical specialities before settling into a career in respiratory medicine. She trained as an advanced nurse practitioner in 1996 and went on to create an effective community service model for people with COPD which included Pulmonary rehabilitation. Securing significant funding enabled her to scale this care model up to create an integrated multidisciplinary County wide COPD team in Worcestershire. She was clinical lead for this service for many years and contributed to many of the respiratory developments in the County. She completed a Doctorate in 2008 where she studied the concept of motivation in pulmonary rehabilitation, developing a valid and reliable psychometric measure of self-regulation. Elaine was a co-author on the 2013 pulmonary rehabilitation NICE guideline and was a committee member for the subsequent PR quality standards and first National PR audit.
In recent years she has followed a more academic career pathway in order to build her research and teaching portfolio. She developed an accessible physical activity model of PR called 'breathehappy' and has researched this and other alternative models of PR such as remote PR during COVID. She is a clinical advisor to the AHSN for the lunghealth@home programme and has worked as a QI coach on the NACAP programme. She is currently working as an ANP in primary care.
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Dave has worked in the NHS since qualifying in 2000, and in respiratory medicine since 2001. As a physiotherapist by background, Dave has worked within nurse and physiotherapist led community respiratory services in both Manchester and Merseyside since 2006 – involving acute care / chronic disease management / respiratory physiotherapy and pulmonary rehabilitation and has developed into a non-medical prescriber and later an advanced clinical practitioner with the support and encouragement of his nursing colleagues. Dave has previously worked as lead clinician for the local respiratory virtual ward and is currently part of the senior clinical team in his community respiratory service, with an interest in Bronchiectasis.
Dave has presented his work at BTS and ERS conferences and has supported his colleagues in doing the same. Dave is committed to developing staff and has supported colleagues into non-medical prescribing / advanced practice training & development and is excited to continue to encourage this evolving area of clinical practice with his involvement as an associate member of ARNS and subcommittee member, giving back to those who have supported him with his development.