Meet the team
The new committee was formed in October 2011. You can learn more about these key nurse activists below... in their own words!
David Quayle- Forum Chair
I qualified in 1989 from Nobles Hospital in the Isle of Mann and worked there for a number of years in acute medicine and oncology. After leaving the island I moved into intensive care nursing and developed my skills in the speciality.
Most recently I have spent a number of years as a Senior Charge Nurse in Cardiothoracic ITU at the John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford. There I developed a new and simple weaning tool and a guideline for dealing with delirium – presenting this work at a number of national conferences – as well as developing a role in risk management and writing the unit's incident management plans.
I have always been interested in transferring critical care patients and undertook numerous level 2 and 3 air ambulance transfers for AirMed before joining the team in 2009 as Chief Flight Nurse. As a result, my skills and experiences span both aspects of this forum. I now utilise critical care nursing skills outside of an ITU, undertake medical note review and arrange staffing for flights as the medical departments manager.
Education has always been an area of keen interest for me. I have taught critical care and patient transport skills from Stornoway to Gibraltar, and am an instructor on the Cardiac Surgical Advanced Life Support course.
I am very keen to promote the unique role of nurses within aeromedical transport and the essential contribution they make to a positive experience for patients.
Email David Quayle
Sheila Goodman- Deputy Chair/ Newsletter Co-editor
I was elected onto the RCN Critical Care Forum Steering Committee almost six years ago. Prior to that I was a link member for many years, and before that I attended as many link meetings and conferences as I could.
While being a committee member I have acted as Secretary, been Editor of Critical Care Mail, our forum newsletter, for the past three years and been involved in helping to run the annual conference held each June. I have also represented the forum at the Acute Clinical Care Information Advisory Group (ACCIAG) meetings, offering a nursing viewpoint on critical care issues.
I trained in Chelmsford and spent some time working at the Brompton Hospital and in Ipswich. I am currently a sister in the Critical Care Unit at West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St Edmunds and have been in post there now for nine years.
I have spent most of my nursing career working in critical care and it is a passion that I continue to hold. It was this passion which led me to join the Critical Care Forum and its steering committee. If you too feel the same about critical care, do think about standing for a place on the committee this spring/summer when forum elections are to be held.
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Rita Mody- Newsletter Co-editor
I began my nursing career on surgical and trauma wards before moving into emergency nursing. During this time I completed the A&E 199 nursing qualification.
After several years in A&E, I moved on to work as a sister onboard cruise liners, progressing in this role to lead nurse. I then returned to the UK to train as a flight nurse, undertaking both the RCN In-Flight Nursing and Clinical Considerations in Aeromedical Transport courses.
During the 10 years I have been a flight nurse I’ve worked for much of the time as the Nurse Case Manager in a UK-based assistance company, later moving on to work in the operations department of a repatriation company. When not working in the offices, I undertook fixed wing repatriations, both short- and long-haul, on a variety of aircraft.
Alongside flight nursing I became a lecturer on the RCN In-Flight Nursing course and trained as a first aid instructor for flight and cabin crew, providing medical training for crew working onboard commercial airlines and corporate jets.
My training role continues to evolve and I am currently Manager of Medical Training for MedAire, overseeing aviation medical training for flight deck and cabin crew. I still enjoy working as a flight nurse part time.
I was elected to the RCN INFA Committee in 2004.
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Colin Steen
I have worked in a senior clinical role in general intensive care, cardiothoracic intensive care and cardiothoracic transplant intensive care for 18 years. I am currently a lecturer in acute and critical care nursing at the University of Manchester. I have also had experience of in-flight nursing, repatriating holidaymakers and acting as an expert witness in critical care nursing.
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Mark Clement
Background
I originally trained as an adult nurse in 1989, specialising firstly in infectious diseases before moving into intensive care nursing with a particular interest in the care and management of those individuals suffering from a burn injury. During the 1990s it was still commonplace to manage both adults and children together within regional burns units and it was here that my interest in paediatrics developed. With a desire to understand paediatric care better, I undertook a ‘short’ sabbatical to a paediatric intensive care unit – which has lasted 15 years!
After undertaking my paediatric training I remained in the intensive care environment in a variety of roles, including senior charge nurse, retrieval and renal replacement lead, risk management and project development. During my time in the intensive care units, I came to appreciate the expert and specialist practice of my fellow nurses and have since strived to ensure that expert practice is recognised, promoted and facilitated through opportunity and education.
Present role
I am currently employed as Advanced Nurse Practitioner for the Children’s Acute Transport Service, based in the North Thames Region. My role has involved a transition from an accompanying retrieval nurse to a lead practitioner in the stabilisation and transfer of critically ill children into the intensive care units, by both road and air. I continue to have a passion for the advancement of nursing practice and working in collaboration with our medical colleagues to ensure that these roles are not only recognised but synergistic in providing the best possible care for our patients.
I am delighted to be a part of our newly structured forum and look forward to driving forward the aims and objectives of our members. I hope to be able to provide particular advice and recommendation in the general issues of advanced practice in the critical care areas as well as the unique role our nurses play in the field of aeromedical transfers.
The external examiner reviews the programme structure and moderates the assessed work for fairness, consistency and quality. A report is written for each batch of work and an annual report reviewing each year is also produced. This annual report forms part of an internal annual quality checking process. An external examiner is usually appointed for a fixed term of three to four years, after which there should be a gap of another three to four years before the examiner can seek reappointment.
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Stuart Cox
I am a newly elected member to the forum and joined in October 2011. My rationale for joining the team is to use my experience of in-flight and critical care nursing to make changes to current practice and improve standards of care.
As a background I trained at Southampton University Hospital in 1997 and specialised in adult critical care once qualified. I have been fortunate within my critical care nursing career to work in many varied and challenging environments, both within the traditional surroundings of the NHS and outside of this.
In recent years my experience has included undertaking an NHS secondment with the Ministry Defence in the intensive care at Camp Bastion Hospital, Afghanistan; being a charge nurse on the critical care outreach team; and more recently as a senior charge nurse in General Intensive Care at Southampton University NHS Foundation Hospital. The hospital has recently become a major trauma centre and I have been part of the team developing and instigating a large teaching programme that has been rolled out to the multi-disciplinary team. In addition to my NHS commitment, I am also the senior flight Nurse at CEGA Air Ambulance, which involves both teaching the medical staff and developing air ambulance standards. The company undertakes European transfers of level 2 and 3 patients.
I enjoy the challenges of both of these roles, which brings my experience and passion to the forum, allowing me to both engage and represent the members, and to facilitate the development of policy and practice to benefit our patients
Email Stuart Cox