I have been a qualified nurse since 2007, working within specialities of acute medicine, medicine for older people, and the Emergency Department, before stumbling across a career within acute stroke 10 years ago. Having previously worked as a charge nurse I agreed to move to the stroke unit whilst I was trying to figure out my career path and ended up loving working within such a unique MDT setting.
I worked within a combined acute/rehab stroke unit for 2 years before we opened Southampton’s first HASU within the Wessex Neurological Centre. Creating a ward from scratch with 2 weeks’ notice was quite the challenge, but one that I found fulfilling and enjoyable. After developing and sustaining the ward, I decided to move to a newly created post of trainee stroke advanced nurse practitioner, where I undertook my masters study in the advanced clinical practice at the University of Southampton. We created a 24/7 practitioner team and were finalists at the 2019 RNCi awards for service innovation. I worked through the early stages of developing Southampton into the regional centre for Wessex Mechanical Thrombectomy referrals, and helped to create the pathways that we now continue to use within the region.
I moved 10 miles up the road to Winchester Hospital in 2021 in order to create and lead a front door practitioner team, and be able to provide better access to hyper acute treatments and refer into Southampton. I am driven by service improvement, and have been able to share this work at UKSF and National Mechanical Thrombectomy symposiums as well as publish work around the role of the advanced nurse practitioner in 2018.
Away from work, I enjoy spending time with my partner and my 2 daughters who keep me busy! I have a puppy that I am enjoying trying to raise and keep under control! I really enjoy sport, pretty much any sport, and have worked within sports medicine for the past 6 years. I am part of the British Paralympic Nursing team and the lead nurse for the British Para Swimming team. I have learnt a huge amount from my time with the teams, and providing nursing care at events such as the Tokyo Paralympic games and world swimming championships has inspired me to take concepts from sport back to my work within acute stroke. I am currently working towards preparing for the Paris 2024 Paralympic games cycle which should be a fantastic event to be a part of.
