Meet the team

Chair

Steering committee members

Profiles

Wendy Fairhurst

I work as a Nurse Partner in a general practice in Wigan, and also as a director and clinical lead for a social enterprise called Health First ALW Community Interest Company. This organisation delivers, amongst other things, a breathlessness service  and cardiovascular disease health checks on behalf of the NHS in Ashton, Leigh and Wigan.

In general practice (GP) I bridge the gap between nursing and medical colleagues, as I am on the GPs rota and seeing people presenting with acute conditions as well as patients with complex long-term conditions.

My work with the social enterprise company has been very exciting and we are proud to have built up an effective and happy nursing team which is making a real difference to the local population.

Prior to this I worked at University of Manchester as a lecturer, practitioner and  programme director for the MSc Clinical Nursing and practice nurse lead, and at the University of Wolverhampton as a external examiner for non-medical prescribing.

I am passionate about the importance of advanced nursing practice, both for the benefits to patients and our profession. I maintain the belief that regulation of advanced practice is crucial.

Victoria Williams

I am currently employed as Cardiology Nurse Practitioner at the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff.  The role involves the assessment and subsequent management of cardiology in-patients at a tertiary centre, encompassing a wide range of cardiological conditions. The nurse practitioner team also mangages the referral and transfer of patients from district general hospitals within the South East Wales network to a nurse-led acute coronary syndrome unit. 

I undertook my nurse training in the University of Northumbria at Newcastle and qualified in 2001.  Since then I have worked within the cardiothoracic speciality, both in the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle, and at the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff.  I have had the opportunity to work in cardiac surgery, thoracic high-dependency, cardiac intensive care, cardiology in patients and coronary care, and would consider myself a specialist within this field.

I am currently undertaking an Msc in Advanced Clinical Practice at the University of Glamorgan and gaining valuable experience working at advanced level with the support of both nursing and medical colleagues.  I am also an independent prescriber and have found this to be an invaluable part of my current role.

As a newly appointed member of the forum committee I am keen to engage advanced practitioners from both secondary and primary sectors, to strive for formal regulation and recognition of our valuable contribution.  The Advanced Practitioner forum has afforded me with a fantastic opportunity in which to do this.

Julie Hall

I work in general practice in Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire as Advanced Nurse Practitioner and Nurse Prescriber.  My practice involves: triage, management of undifferentiated acute presentations and the clinical lead for diabetes mellitus.  In addition, I manage a caseload of housebound patients, enabling them to access primary care and to develop a continuing relationship with a single practitioner. 

As a newly appointed member of the forum committee I am keen to promote regulation, recognition and respect in the sector.  All flow from the regulation of advanced nurse practitioners, within an agreed and disseminated competency framework. My route to this role has been through a course of academic study at postgraduate level and a rather more piecemeal acquisition of clinical and diagnostic skills.  I am keen to have this route recognised through a rigorous process of accreditation of prior and experiential learning (APEL).

Mary Hutchinson

Over the past 20 years, my nursing career has encompassed work in minor injury units, emergency departments and GP primary care.

Whilst completing Msc studies in first contact care, I worked as an advanced nurse practitioner (ANP) in primary care.  During this time I undertook a qualitative research study to assertain the impact of GP telephone triage on patients and the health care team.  Since 2009 I have worked as an ANP in the nurse-led Urgent Care Centre, Kingstanding, Birmingham.  This unit provides equitable access to primary care for local people who 'walk in' with unsceduled health care needs.  This role involves clinical service delivery, as well as clinical governance responsibilities.

My professional interests include the development and registration of advanced nurse practice, and assessment of its underpinning competence and quality of nursing care.  I am a Founding Fellow of the faculty of Emergency Nursing (FEN), and a steering committee member for both the Midlands Urgent Care Group and the RCN West Midlands Quality Improvement Network.  Since participating in Discovery Interviews with The Older Person (2006) to learn about their experience of emergency care, I am determined to strive to improve nursing care of this stoic and often silent cohort of patients.

I am interested in all art forms.  I have written a book that tells the 'human history' of the local hospitals that have served my home City of Lichfield, Staffordshire over the 19th and 20th centuries.