Therapy Sub Committee

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.

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.

I am a Respiratory Nurse Consultant working across Respiratory Medicine and Pleural Disease at Wirral University NHS Foundation Trust. I have been working in advanced respiratory nursing practice across the Wirral Peninsula since 2002 and I am passionate about evidence based respiratory healthcare. I have been instrumental in developing advanced pleural services across the Trust over the last 10 years and delivering services to patients with both benign and malignant pleural disease. As the pleural nursing lead, I am responsible for nurse led pleural clinics and procedure lists. I have written policy and guidance and I support medical staff and other health care professionals to gain competence with advanced pleural procedures.

Nationally, I am a member of the British Thoracic Society new Pleural Guideline group; on the executive committee for the UK Pleural Society and a member of the British Thoracic Society Lung Cancer & Mesothelioma Specialist Advisory Group. I hope as the ARNS Sub-Committee pleural lead I can inspire others to push forward modern pleural nursing in the ever changing and challenging socio-economic environment.

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).

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