Alison Armstrong – a Nurse Consultant for Home Ventilation at Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary is the first non-medic to hold the position and says she looks forward to making a positive impact in her new role.
“I am absolutely thrilled to have been appointed as the first nurse delegate into the role of chair of the British Thoracic Society (BTS) Education and Training Committee, and the first non-medic in a chair role across any of the BTS core committees,” said Alison.
“I am passionate about the importance of education and the innovative ways that it can be delivered and am eager to continue to represent the entire MDT and promote multi-professional education.
“I’m also keen to consider ways of including the patient voice in developing educational programmes and resources for clinicians, which would ultimately promote better respiratory health for patients.”
As a nurse consultant, 50% of Alison’s role is protected time with patients and the remaining 50% divided between research, service improvement and education. She has a strong interest in supporting and delivering education having contributed in this space for many years and her experience means she is well placed to take on this nationally leading role.
Alison’s nursing career
Alison has enjoyed a varied and successful nursing career which began in 1993 in intensive care. Over time she specialised and was part of the RVI’s original home ventilation specialist interest core group.
Alison progressed to a nurse specialist role and then became one of the country’s first nurse consultants in 2017. In this role she has led on the development of the North East Assisted Ventilation Service based at the RVI in Newcastle.
Alison also co-ordinated a national network group of nurses and allied health professionals (SiLVaH – Specialists in Long-term Ventilation at Home) who are involved in the support and delivery of long term ventilation in the community setting.
A British Thoracic Society Nurse Specialist
Alison has held the position of co-chair of the British Thoracic Society Nurse Specialist Advisory group for the last four years.
She is also involved in other aspects of the Society’s work; having contributed to the Quality tool for acute NIV which was launched in 2018, and more recently she contributed to the clinical statement for managing patients with respiratory disease during airline travel.
Additionally, Alison has authored and co-authored a number of other publications specific to her area of practice.
In 2015 she was involved in the development of the medical home ventilation competency-based curriculum for the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine, which is now formerly adopted by the GMC.
Subsequent to this, she helped to produce an educational framework for use with non-medical health care professionals working in the field of home mechanical ventilation.
You can find out more about the British Thoracic Society here.
