Helen HamiltonHelen Hamilton

RGN CMS BSc (Hons) FRCN

Helen Hamilton is an expert in critical care, vascular access and parenteral nutrition. As a senior critical care nurse in Oxford she made the important breakthrough of developing the first nurse-led vascular access service. She says this would never have been possible without the encouragement and support of surgical consultant Michael Kettlewell and nursing colleague Annie Kimblin - and the tolerance of her daughter, Claire!

Helen is most proud of the improvement she has brought to patients’ lives. Patients are now able to have vascular access devices inserted and high tech therapy at their bedside or as outpatients, avoiding hospital admission, surgery and general anaesthetic. She would like to see the revolutionary move of increasing the availability of community IV therapy. Her vision is to reduce bed occupancy and allow patients to return home or to work with the support of well-informed teams of community nursing staff.

Helen runs the first and only masters level training course (http://www.ivteam.plus.com/flyer.pdf ) in Europe for the insertion of central venous access devices and has already trained 20 postgraduate students in this field.

Over the years she has presented at many national and international conferences, and it was attending an American conference that inspired her to come back home and organise the first Oxford International IV Therapy Home and Hospital Conference in 2001. "We started with a two-day conference and it’s grown and grown - last year we had 250 delegates from nine countries. Within the two day conference we also run workshops and roundtables so that industry has an opportunity to speak to clinical experts and hear what we need and want."

She serves on the RCN IV Therapy Forum Committee, has acted as an expert witness and is currently involved in a number of national research studies.

Helen lives near Oxford.

Publications

Helen Hamilton has many written articles, contributed to and edited a number of books. Central venous access: a handbook on techniques and management for all health care professionals is coming out in early 2006.

Other books include:

  • Contributor (2000) Nursing in haematological oncology: Harcourt Press.
  • Editor and contributor (1999) Practical issues of parenteral nutrition, Oxford: Churchill Livingstone
  • Supplier of additional material to Professor Sir Peter Morris (1998) Oxford textbook of surgery
  • Contributor to Teresa Finlay and Louise Bruce (1997) Gastrointestinal nursing, Oxford: Churchill Livingstone.

Some recent examples of articles include:

  • A nurse-led vascular access service, Oxford, UK (2005) Journal of the Association of Vascular Access.
  • Advantages of a nurse-led vascular access service (2005) Journal of Vascular Access Devices.
  • Complications associated with venous access: nursing care and management (accepted for publication, 2005) Nursing Standard.
  • Central venous catheters: choosing the most appropriate access route (2004) British Journal of Nursing.
  • Advantages of a nurse-led central vascular access service (2004) Journal of Vascular Access.
  • The impact massive colonic resection has on the patient (2004) Royal College of Surgeons (accepted for publication).
  • Which device which patient (2002) European Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition.
  • Which device which patient (2000) British Journal of Nursing.
  • Patient assessment by nurses prior to IV central cannulation (1998) British Journal of Nursing.