'As clinical director, I am delighted to support Wound Care Today, leading the development of the clinical programme and spending time with colleagues who are passionate about improving the life of those with, or at risk of, wounds. The blend of practical and theoretical sessions, personal development and real life experience will stimulate and inspire us all in our day-to-day practice.'
Remote area nursing in the Torres Straits Islands during the mid-1990s fired up Helen's passion for wound care. While there, she cared for locals with infected tropical wounds and many diabetic foot ulcers. On return to the UK, she actively pursued a career within tissue viability, and has had an enjoyable and rewarding career to date. She has held clinical, research and leadership positions within the NHS; and the tissue viability work her teams have undertaken has been recognised through three national awards.
Within wound care, she has worked as a lone TVN across a number of acute hospitals and has also lead tissue viability services. Having held both consultant tissue viability nurse and executive director of nursing roles within the NHS, and worked within the wound care industry, she now provides consultancy within the NHS, private sector and commercial organisations.
Helen holds a substantive position as lead nurse for wound care pathways within an NHS provider organisation in England, maintaining an active role in improving safety, patient and staff experience and clinical outcomes.
Paul Vaughan
Chair, Wound Care Today
Deputy director, Primary Care Nursing and NextGen Nurse
Paul works with NHS England as the deputy director – Primary Care Nursing and NextGen Nurse. Previously, Paul was a director of nursing, transformation within the organisation. Currently, the focus of his role is on general practice nursing and leading the national initiative on the perception of nursing known as NextGen Nurse.
Paul led the development and implementation of the 'GPN Ten Point Plan' and continues to work to ensure the voice and contribution of general practice nursing is valued and further developed in the new NHS system architecture.
Through the NextGen Programme, Paul led the schools work which encourages young people from all walks of life to take up nursing as their career of choice. He also leads work that through an evidence-based programme enables executive white leaders to build equity in the NHS through their sponsorship of nurses from the Global Majority. This enables nurses from the Global Majority to advance their careers and be appointed to very senior NHS leadership positions.
Paul has completed a Masters in Management with the University of Liverpool and his dissertation focused on the factors that enable nursing staff to raise concerns in their workplace.
Vicki Anstey
World record holder, adventurer, keynote speaker
Vicki Anstey is a sought-after motivational and Ted-X speaker, and a high performance, mindset and stress and resilience coach.
She has been a successful corporate advertising professional, turned award-winning entrepreneur and then leading fitness figure in the UK. She is now a world record holding adventurer.
Vicki was one of the first ever women to participate in Channel 4’s SAS Who Dares Wins, reaching the final stages after 11 days in extreme conditions at an altitude of 3,000ft in Chile, South America.
In 2021, she and two other women, the Girls Who Dare, set a new world record for rowing unaided across the Pacific Ocean. It took 60 days, 17 hours and 6 minutes.
She has undertaken ultra marathons in The Arctic and across the Savannahs of Kenya. Covering a distance of over 250km in temperatures of -35 degrees and +50 degrees, carrying everything she needed to survive. She is currently preparing to participate in the 2024 Race Across America, a 3,000 mile non-stop cycling race that speeds through 17 states in just six days.
Vicki talks about her experiences, the physical, mental and emotional impact they have had and what she has learned about resilience, self-care and dealing with extreme pressure and difficult relationships with others along the way.
Get ready to step into your own fears, be inspired to unlock your human potential, discover the ‘secret 60%’ we all have in us and be inspired to live life in a way you never thought possible…
Clare Anvar
Clare has been a clinical massage and manual lymphatic drainage (MLD) therapist since 2004, specialising in all types of chronic pain, post-surgical recovery, and disorders of the lymphatic system.
She is skilled, empathic and committed to delivering exemplary care for patients, who remain her inspiration, tutors and guides. She works closely with consultants and surgeons to speed recovery or to stabilise and maintain chronic conditions. She has extensive experience with complex cases and from many types of shor- and long-term surgical recovery; oncology, orthopaedics, reconstructive and cosmetic. She works with all UK insurance companies.
Alongside her private practice, Clare has always studied and worked within different clinical environments. From 2004–2008, she delivered therapies for an HIV charity, where she became a trustee to formulate and deliver HIV awareness training, while studying a foundation degree in Complementary Approaches to health at Thames Valley University. She also worked for a local cancer charity providing MLD and complementary therapies. From 2008–2011, she became a complementary therapist in Cancer Services at University College London hospital (UCLH), while studying a BSc (Hons) Health Sciences; remedial massage and neuromuscular therapy at Westminster University. She then studied an MSc in Complementary Medicine at Westminster, which was completed in 2015, while working as a clinical massage therapist for Horder Healthcare, who specialise in Orthopaedic surgeries.
Clare presented a poster of her dissertation on lymphoedema management at the British Lymphology Society (BLS) conference in 2015. This narrowed her focus and she began to specialise more closely on lymphoedema and lipoedema. She continued to train in advanced lymphoedema management and three types of MLD. In the last few years, she has developed and taught a method of kinesiology taping to speed post-surgical recovery. She works part-time from the clinic of a reconstructive and plastic surgeon, looking after post-surgical patients. She also now writes academic articles and presents at international conferences about her work. More recently, in January 2023, she became the clinical therapy advisor to Lipoedema UK and a member of the expert panel for Lymphoedema United in January 2024.
Dorothy Bean
Regional chief nursing information officer, NHS England South West and IT systems analysis and design student, University of Oxford
Chief nursing information officers (CNIOs) often have varied backgrounds before coming to the role, but are probably united by being ‘geeky’ and enjoying tech and data. Not surprising then, that many of have worked in tech and data heavy ITUs or EDs at some point in their careers. But, it is a broad church and in future you will increasingly see digital nurses in social care.
My own path towards this role started in the 2000s while teaching research and audit to post registration students, which exposed me to research methods and data types. In the 2010s, I was introduced to mathematical and predictive capabilities by my son while he undertook a master’s degree in physics — I progressed from there.
As divisional director of nursing I got interested and involved in the rollout of digital systems (whether they went well or badly), and had a fabulous team of IT developers at Nottingham University Hospitals who helped consider how to build systems that would help solve clinical challenges.
Back then I was trying to solve the challenges associated with getting ‘transition’ right for all young people transferring into adult services after they had had years of care under various paediatricians. It sounds like it should be easy to do, but it is not. It is a wicked problem and one I took into the NHS clinical entrepreneurship programme so I could design and build a solution. Undertaking this programme made me frustrated at not knowing how information technology systems really worked and this brought me to today.
A regional CNIO and a student on a software design programme. It is quite amazing to do a course in a topic completely out of your comfort zone. But, I am learning so much so I can be a better CNIO.
MD, Consultant Surgical Oncologist at Instituto Português de Oncologia de Lisboa - Melanoma, Sarcoma and Peritoneal Disease Unit and also member of the Multidisciplinary Wound Care Team
Shaun Churm
Senior healthcare assistant; student nurse
In 2008, Shaun embarked on an apprenticeship in health and social care with clinical placements at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals. This led to a job as a healthcare assistant within the medical directorate.
Later in 2012, he went to work at Doncaster Royal Infirmary specialising as a healthcare assistant in the wound care clinic. This is where he found his love for nursing.
Between 2012 and 2018, Shaun went on several secondments within the trust, learning new skills and expanding his underpinning knowledge of nursing.
In 2018, he went to work in primary care, where he flourished and decided to do his nurse training.
He enrolled on an undergraduate degree in adult nursing in September 2021. Shaun is now a third-year student and is due to qualify in September 2024. Throughout his training he has maintained his clinical practice within Doncaster Primary Care, working in practice and within the Covid roving team.
Wendy Cole
Clinical nurse advisor, Medicareplus International
Wendy Cole is a RGN with 26 years’ experience in the NHS within primary and secondary care. For the last 13 years, she has worked in the commercial space within the specialities of continence and wound care. Her current role is as a clinical nurse advisor at Medicareplus International, covering South Wales and South Central.
Garry Cooper-Stanton
Deputy Head of School of Nursing, University of Central Lancashire
Garry is a clinical nurse specialist within lymphoedema and is undertaking his doctoral research focusing upon men diagnosed with non-cancer related lymphoedema and their experiences. Alongside these activities, he works as the Associate Dean at the University of Central Lancashire and has authored several articles within the subject area of lymphoedema.
Garry has also worked across a number of sectors, including public, private, charitable, and was awarded the title of Queen’s Nurse from the Queen’s Nurse Institute, for his work in primary care. In addition to his existing roles and studies, he is an active member of the BLS (British Lymphology Society) scientific committee, and the promotion of evidence-based approaches within the care of those diagnosed with lymphoedema.
David Cruttenden-Wood
Consultant colorectal surgeon, Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Mr David Cruttenden-Wood is an acute and general surgeon in Hampshire Hospitals Foundation Trust (HHFT) who specialises in coloproctology. He maintains a specialist interest in vascular surgery, including the acute treatment of diabetic feet and leg ulceration. He leads surgical ambulatory care (SDEC) on the Winchester site and is also the clinical director for virtual healthcare for HHFT, leading the development of the virtual wards and other virtual healthcare initiatives to help benefit the local population.
He is passionate about making sure patients get the right care by the best team, at the right time in the best place. For over 20 years, he has had a sustained clinical interest in helping to improve the care for patients with complex surgical wounds. He was an early adopter of negative pressure dressing in the management of these tricky patients. He has always been keen to develop collaborative multidisciplinary team (MDT ) driven services with a real focus on training healthcare professionals as ‘one team’.
His current roles have best placed him to drive collaboration between the community and hospital tissue viability nurses (TVNs), the local surgeons and virtual ward team. The aim being to provide wrap around seamless enhanced care for patients in the region with complex wounds using a virtual ward. Virtual monitoring, vibrant MDT discussions along with the sharing of knowledge and ideas have led to increased confidence and coordination, that has improved patient safety and care.
When David is not working, he will be found either cycling over a mountain or wakeboarding on flat water enjoying the sunshine.
Alex Freitas
Clinical nurse advisor, Medicareplus International
Alex Freitas graduated as a registered nurse in 2007 and started her nursing career in a variety of clinical settings. She has worked within oncology, orthopaedics, spinal, outpatients and gynaecology, but her passion has always lied in emergency and trauma nursing and training. She completed her master’s in healthcare leadership in 2015 and made the leap from the NHS to Medicareplus in 2017, where she is part of the clinical team.
As part of the Medicareplus team, she has authored and co-authored articles for publication, coordinated product evaluations, and worked with clinicians to develop clinical pathways and posters. She also provides education and support to customers to enable them to achieve the best possible patient outcomes.
Astrid Fremau
Astrid Fremau is a bioscience engineering graduate from the University of Leuven in Belgium, with a Master’s in cell and genome technology. Following this, she pursued a Master's in general management at the Antwerp Management School. For the past four years, she has been part of Flen Health's Medical Affairs department.
Her keen interest in biology, science, and medicine drives her work, and her curiosity and dedication to continuous learning have been key contributors in the wonderful world of wound care.
James Gotts
Diabetes/vascular specialist podiatrist, Department of Vascular Surgery, The Royal London Hospital, Barts Health NHS Trust
James Gotts trained as a podiatrist at the University of Brighton, where he obtained a BSc (Hons). After undertaking further study, he was awarded a Postgraduate Diploma in Wound Healing and Tissue Repair from Cardiff University in 2015.
James spent the first 12 years of his career at Barts Health in the community, running a diabetic footcare service specialising in diabetic foot wound care.
From 2016 to 2021 he worked as podiatric diabetes manager at St George’s Hospital in Tooting, developing the service and integrating with partner services to improve multidisciplinary foot team input for the diabetic foot with the help of the South West London Foot Network and NHS Diabetes Transformation Fund.
He joined Barts Health NHS Trust in 2021 on secondment to provide inpatient and outpatient care for patients with diabetes and high-risk foot conditions in the Royal London Hospital. This became a permanent position in May 2023. He specialises in diabetes, wound care and vascular podiatry. James is passionate about delivering the
best possible care to his patients through an evidence-based and multidisciplinary approach.
Samantha Haigh
Lead nurse in tissue viability/ bladder & bowel
Samantha has worked in tissue viability for over 20 years. After starting as a tissue viability assistant in 2003, her interest and passion in tissue viability has never stopped growing. After initially starting in a general hospital covering four hospitals and a small community, over the years her geographical area has grown, and she was lucky to be promoted to lead nurse of a far larger service. The service within North Yorkshire covers 3,000 square miles of community services with seven inpatient hospitals, including two acute trusts. Due to the geographical area the small specialist team covers, the use of virtual technology has been paramount to ensuring a timely response can be provided to both patients and staff regarding holistic care needs of any and every wound, in all environments across the region.
Sara continues to provide clinical input to patients, while also offering a strategic vision to the organisation. She manages a bladder & bowel team, which links nicely to the tissue viability agenda and, with both subject areas, she continues to gain as much education as possible. Sara is yet to become bored of this role and feels that she learns something new every single day.
Rebecca Housley
Consultant nurse, telemedicine, virtual wards and the communication centre, Hampshire Hospitals
Rebecca is currently the consultant nurse overseeing the virtual health hub at Hampshire Hospitals. This supports three services to ensure that patients are safely managed at home or supported and reviewed in secondary care. The first service is the telemedicine service which supports 260 care homes across Hampshire. This is to support staff and carers with acute patient deterioration to ensure that residents are reviewed in a timely manner and escalated when required. The second service is the clinical communication centre. This supports their primary care and community colleagues with acute medical advice and admissions into secondary care and ensures that patients are seen at the right time, place and by the right clinician. The last service is their virtual wards to support admission avoidance and reduce inpatient length of stay. Rebecca and colleagues are currently managing eight virtual wards across different specialities. The most recent addition is the complex wound virtual ward. This supports patients in the community to remain medically well and makes sure that they have tissue viability and surgical support through secondary care to manage their care at home.
Before this role, Rebecca has had a wide range of experience from working in the community, within the emergency department and critical care.
Jane Hughes
District nurse caseload holder, Merseycare NHS Trust
Jane lives in Liverpool and is married with two grown children. She has worked in care since the age of 17, with the elderly, those with dementia and disability learning needs. She worked in the acute setting, and then changed to the community where she now works as a caseload holder within the district nursing team.
Linda Humphreys
Community matron, Merseycare NHS Trust
Linda is married with two teenage cats. She worked for many years on a medical assessment unit at Aintree Hospital before leaving the hospital to join the community respiratory team, specialising in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). During this time she successfully completed a Masters in advanced practice before becoming a community matron two years ago.
Linda Johns
Clinical nurse specialist, Merseycare NHS Trust
Linda lives in Liverpool and is married with two grown up children. She worked as a respiratory specialist nurse and was hospital-based for over 25 years. She set up one of the first oxygen assessment services in Liverpool, and also a nurse-led interstitial lung service. Linda then changed direction towards a role working in the community.
She worked as a community matron for a few years before retiring. Linda returned part-time to a new role as a community clinical nurse specialist, supporting community matrons and district nurses with complex patients.
Naman Julka-Anderson
Macmillan radiotherapist, co-creator of Rad Chat
Naman is a research radiographer working at the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and Institute of Cancer Research, along with working as an allied health professional clinical advisor for Macmillan Cancer Support Charity and the co-founder of multi-award winning Rad Chat oncology podcast. He won Radiographer of the Year 2022 with the Society of Radiographers for his skin care research and also works as an ambassador for Radiotherapy UK and Move charity.
Stephanie Lowen
Self-management specialist, national — supporting the NHS
Stephanie Lowen is a self-management specialist who has worked in the NHS for 15 years and has successfully implemented and established a Self-Management Service in Leeds, which has raised national interest. She has grown the service from eight to 42 staff members, and secured permanent funding while discharging on average 130+ individuals a month, focusing on what that individual needs and personalising their care.
She has successfully implemented self-management in both acute and community settings, focusing on the patient flow journey and saving around 3000+ visits for the NHS.
Cheryl Lugton
Tissue viability specialist nurse, NHS Borders
Cheryl has been in her current post as a tissue viability nurse specialist (TVSN) at NHS Borders for six years. She has been a qualified nurse for 32 years and was a specialist practitioner in intensive care before becoming a TVSN.
Cheryl has experience in working in different healthcare environments overseas, including Australia and the USA.
Siobhan Mccoulough
Tissue viability nurse consultant, Pioneer Wound and Lymphoedema Healing Centres
Siobhan is a tissue viability nurse lead having worked across primary, community and acute care services in London since 2001. Siobhan relocated to the Southwest in 2019 joining University Hospital Plymouth as tissue viability lead in 2020. More recently, Siobhan has joined Pioneer Wound and Lymphoedema Healing Centres as tissue viability nurse consultant.
Siobhan has dedicated her work to raising awareness and influencing change in practice in community and long-term care settings across all nursing and non-medical disciplines with particular interest in pressure ulcer prevention. Her work and research have included working with Northwest London pressure ulcer steering group as a pressure ulcer prevention lead and secondment to Imperial academic science health network (ASHN). She has published her work from this time with focus on informal and formal carers, implementing a visual tool and adapted SSKIN bundle into community and care homes. This work led to a quality improvement award at European pressure ulcer advisor panel (EPUAP) and Siobhan was nominated to attend a garden party at Buckingham palace in 2017 for her recognised contribution to nursing by Dr Ruth May. In 22/23 Siobhan was later seconded to work with the National Wound Care Strategy Programme (NWCSP) within their implementation work stream for the lower limb recommendations.
Siobhan is passionate about increasing confidence in clinical leadership to enable wider influence in strategic direction of organisations tissue viability and patient safety policy, as well as how we capture a wider and more diverse range of voices from under-represented groups impacted by wounds, and what we can learn from them. Having recently completed a Diploma in Senior Leadership and Management in Healthcare at Exeter University and Charted Management with the CMI, she is keen to share her experience of how we can make an impact within our organisation whatever level we work at.
Jane Parker
PCN tissue viability specialist nurse, West Norfolk Coastal and King’s Lynn PCNs
Jane starter her nurse training at the University of East Anglia (UEA) in 1997, a late starter at the age of 27. She worked as a staff nurse at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Kings Lynn (QEHKL), BMI Sandringham Hospital and Norfolk PCT (now Norfolk Community Health and Care). Her career as a tissue viability nurse (TVN) began in 2009 within Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (community). She has since gone on to lead the TVN services at QEHKL and most recently for a short time at Cambridge University Hospitals (Addenbrookes). She also left the NHS twice to work for the commercial industry as a clinical nurse advisor for maggot therapy and advanced wound care.
Her current role is tissue viability specialist nurse within primary care for two primary care networks (PCN) in West Norfolk.
Alison Parnham
Tissue viability clinical nurse specialist, Nottingham CityCare; teaching associate, University of Nottingham
Alison has 38 years of clinical experience in nursing and the last 28 years as a clinical nurse specialist in tissue viability with Nottingham CityCare, providing advice and support to patients, carers and clinicians on all aspects of pressure ulcer prevention and optimisation of wound healing. She is actively involved in developing and delivering teaching packages and has been instrumental in the development of local policies and guidelines to ensure consistencies in tissue viability practices in line with national guidance and directives. Her additional role involves working with the University of Nottingham as a teaching associate developing accredited courses in tissue viability at Degree and Master’s level, and she has recently developed online courses encompassing wounds relating to impaired skin integrity and hard-to-heal wounds.
She completed a Master’s programme in 2019 on ‘Evidence for Health and Social Care’ where her interest in biofilm began to grow, with her dissertation appraising the most effective strategies for biofilm-based wound care in clinical practice, leading to the implementation of evidence-based guidance for the management of hard-to-heal wounds. Working alongside industry, Alison has been fortunate to speak at the EWMA conference 2019 in Gothenburg on biofilm-based wound care. In 2020, she was invited to take part in the Wound Care Today Facebook Live Streams delivering a presentation on moisture-associated skin damage. More recently, she has been privileged to both chair and speak at a conference in Birmingham, with a focus on the science behind hard-to-heal wounds and evidence-based interventions.
Ines Pereira
Nurse consultant in tissue viability, NHS Grampian
Ines Sadoc Pereira has been a nurse for over 15 years, specialising in critical care and, since 2018, in tissue viability. She started her career in Portugal and moved to London in 2014. She has continuously developed her two passions: working to improve patient outcomes and promoting staff development in critical care and wound care; and as a lecturer, teaching pre-and post-registration students, with a focus on adult nursing and wound care.
She started as an intensive care staff nurse and is currently working as a nurse consultant in tissue viability for NHS Grampian, in Scotland. She has presented her work in both areas in national conferences and webinars and her latest achievement has been to conclude a Master’s in Science — Skin Integrity and Wound Management at Hertfordshire University.
Ines wishes to continue further studies to develop her leadership skills, to inspire others to pursue their dreams and engage with likeminded peers and patients to create a more sustainable future for healthcare.
Rebecca Sacree
Tissue viability nurse, Fundamentals of Care Team, Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Rebecca is a dedicated tissue viability nurse working within the Fundamentals of Care Team at Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, with seven years of expertise in this field. She has climbed the professional ladder since starting in the housekeeping 19 years ago. After various HCSW roles, she qualified in 2012 and worked within colorectal surgery, where her love for complex wounds began.
She enjoys supporting her lead with various clinical projects within the service, and is currently pursuing an operational management apprenticeship, finding fulfilment in the operational side of management within the Fundamentals of Care Team.
Sam Smith
Sam Smith has worked for Flen Health as a senior territory business manager and clinical nurse advisor since 2020. She qualified as an adult nurse in 2009, and worked as a trauma and orthopaedic nurse for three years, also gaining experience working in the Emergency Department. In 2012 She became a tissue viability nurse specialist and worked at an acute hospital for eight years. She has a degree in tissue viability and a passion for wound care.
Sam still holds an honorary contract working as a TVN, keeping up to date with clinical practice.
Cerys Stowe
Lead tissue viability clinical nurse specialist, Fundamentals of Care Team, Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Cerys started out in district nursing and is passionate about wound care; during her 10 years of experience, she has nursed many patients living with chronic pressure ulcers, has gained skills of practice nursing, run wound care clinics, and assisted vascular outpatients.
Specialising further, Cerys gained a position as a tissue viability specialist nurse at Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, where her interest in surgical site infections was born. This gave her a deep insight into complex wounds in the acute sector. She leads the team at Hampshire Hospitals, and as part of the Fundamentals of Care Team, has developed a more holistic approach to work collaboratively, to optimise the inpatient experience, promote safety and prevent harm.
Studying leadership and management in health at master’s level has helped her in her role, and she is excited to start the Florence Nightingale Foundation Scholarship later this year.
Tissue viability service improvement and development is where her passion lies, with the aim of providing truly holistic care for patients.
Lisa Sutherland
Tissue viability and complex wound care nurse consultant, Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Lisa is a tissue viability and complex wound care nurse consultant at Norfolk and Norwich University, a large regional teaching hospital in East Anglia. Lisa changed careers and studied to become a nurse after starting her young family, initially working in emergency nursing, driven by a passion for wounds and person-centred care.
Her career has seen her transition from emergency nursing to clinical education in acute settings and senior ward management before specialising in tissue viability in 2011 — a field that had remained an underlying passion since her student days with district nurses. She obtained her MSc in Skin Integrity and Tissue Viability, along with non-medical prescribing qualifications, and expanded her clinical tissue viability team and patient clinic.
During her tenure in tissue viability, she has worked across several trusts, including Acute, Community, and integrated trusts, providing her with an understanding of the different challenges each poses for staff and patient care delivery.
Lisa has been actively involved in pre-registration curriculum delivery at university level, both as a full-time lecturer and part-time when she returned to full-time clinical work. More recently, under her current teaching commitments, she has been delivering training to pharmacy students, operating department practitioners, and medical students, as well as conducting study day delivery to a variety of nursing and AHPs in both acute and community settings.
Her work in improving knowledge, education, and the delivery of pressure area care was acknowledged in the NHS Leading Change Adding Value document. Her passion remains focused on all aspects of wound-related topics, quality improvement initiatives, teaching, and education, while also chairing regional and local groups dedicated to wound care and pressure area care.
Joanna Swan
Senior lecturer in tissue viability, Birmingham City University
Joanna qualified as a registered general nurse in 1994 and has had roles within a liver unit, intensive care, critical care outreach and acute pain management. During this time, she played a part in a number of research projects, completed a BSc (Hons) at BCU and became a tissue viability (TV) specialist in 2006. As the lead TV specialist nurse in a large university hospital, she completed an MSc in Wound Healing and Tissue Repair at the University of Cardiff where she became particularly interested in the role of research to improve patient outcomes. Since 2020, she has been the senior lecturer for TV at Birmingham City University, where she runs modules for post-registration healthcare professionals while also contributing to the pre-registration programmes.
Joanna also has an honorary contract in a large acute trust as a TV clinical nurse specialist keeping clinical skills current and gaining an understanding of the challenges faced by generalist healthcare practitioners in wound prevention and management.
Rachel Sweeney
Tissue viability specialist nurse, Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust
Since qualifying from the University of East Anglia in 2000, Rachel has held several nursing posts across surgical specialities, quality improvement, research, and tissue viability.
Her tissue viability nursing career began in 2011 working within a large acute trust. While in this role, she successfully completed a MSc in Skin Integrity and Tissue Repair. She left this post after an opportunity arose to develop a newly commissioned role as tissue viability specialist in the community. Since then, with colleagues, she has integrated the tissue viability service into a community-based skin integrity team, incorporating dermatology nursing and lymphoedema services.
Rachel has also worked for a local clinical commissioning group (CCG), as a tissue viability nurse educator, reviewing and supporting complex wound management provision and processes in primary care and supporting a wound care research project.
Keen to further develop her own skills and knowledge to be able to share this wider with colleagues, she has also completed a PG Cert in Medical and Healthcare Education and enrolled on a PG Cert Infection Control programme for 2024.
Jacquie Warner
Tissue viability services lead, Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust
Jacquie is the tissue viability services lead at Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust and a Society of Tissue Viability associate.
During her 17 years as a tissue viability specialist, she has been influential in developing services and delivering quality improvement projects to enhance patient experience and outcomes across acute, community and industry settings. Her peers often comment on her tenacity in ensuring that patients get the right care — pushing and advocating for service transformation where inequalities exist.
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