Janice Reid - Forum Chair

BSc(Hons) Advanced Nursing Practice, RN, DN, ANP, NMP, PG Dip, PG CHERP, FHEA, Lecturer, School of Nursing and Paramedic Science, Ulster University 

Janice has worked in Community continence services since 2003 as a Continence Nurse Specialist progressing to Clinical lead and Service manager. She is a past Chair of Association for Continence Advice. Janice was a finalist in the RCN (NI) Nurse of the Year awards 2005 for her work on developing the first community based prostate assessment clinic in Northern Ireland. She won an HSC Quality award for this work in 2007.

Janice has an interest in male lower urinary tract symptoms as well as management of neurogenic bladder and bowel dysfunction. During her time as Clinical lead for Continence Services, she led a multidisciplinary working group in the development and implementation of care pathways for women with bladder and pelvic floor dysfunction.

Throughout her career Janice has been involved in providing education to learners and on leaving the NHS secured a position as a Lecturer in the School of Nursing and Paramedic Science, Ulster University. Along with delivery of pre-and post-registration teaching, Janice now co-ordinates the ongoing development and delivery of post graduate modules on bladder and bowel dysfunction. 

Janice is passionate about ensuring person centred care for individuals with bladder and bowel dysfunction and promotes the drive for excellence and evidence based practice. She is delighted to have been appointed to the role of Vice Chair of the Bladder and Bowel Forum and is very much looking forward to continuing to contribute to the work going forwards.

Anna Hancock - Vice Chair

RGN dip (BSc hons) NMP QN, Lead Nurse for Community Adult Bladder and Bowel Care, UHCW Community Health Services 

Anna qualified as a Registered General Nurse (RGN) in 1996, initially working in a Neurology setting where her passion for supporting patients experiencing bladder and bowel dysfunction began. This foundation led to a 25-year career within continence services, working in various roles across the West Midlands, including within learning disability and children’s services.

Anna currently leads an NHS Community Nursing Bladder and Bowel Care Team for adults within the Coventry area. She recently worked alongside colleagues and national children’s charities to establish a new Coventry and Warwickshire-wide Children’s Bladder and Bowel Care Service, responding to local needs. With a strong commitment to teaching and learning, Anna contributes to bespoke training within her organisation and externally, including through Bladder and Bowel UK, the Nursing in Practice conferences, and in partnership with other third sector organisations.

Anna has recently become a Queen’s Nurse, a formal recognition of her commitment to delivering and leading outstanding care within community nursing. Her aim is to ensure that patients with bladder and/or bowel dysfunction receive person centred, expert, nurse led care at the right place and time, enabling them to achieve the best possible outcomes.

Anna has worked with the RCN Bladder and Bowel Forum, initially contributing to a working party that updated the RCNi e Continence Learning Resource. She went on to join the forum as a committee member, co editing the RCN Catheter Care guidance, developing a series of specialist webinars on bladder and bowel dysfunction, and supporting the planning and delivery of the highly successful Bladder and Bowel Forum Conference. She has also represented the forum at parliamentary round table events and contributed to discussions within the All Party Parliamentary Continence Committee, advocating for improved continence care and health equity at a national level. She is also collaborating with a group of RCN Bladder and Bowel Forum link nurses to develop a new RCN guidance document aimed at supporting nurses caring for children and young people with daytime urinary incontinence.

Building on her leadership within service transformation, Anna is currently focusing on how Bladder and Bowel Care can be effectively delivered within new Integrated Neighbourhood Teams (INTs) as part of embedding personalised, holistic care in line with the ambitions of the NHS Long Term Plan. Her work emphasises neighbourhood level collaboration, early intervention, prevention, and ensuring access to expert continence support as close to home as possible.

Nikki Cotterill

Professor of Nursing in Continence Care, UWE and North Bristol NHS Trust

Nikki qualified in 1999 and worked in medicine and surgery before pursuing her interests in research at the Bristol Urological Institute in 2003. She is now a Professor of Nursing in Continence Care at UWE and North Bristol NHS Trust having completed her PhD in 2009, developing a self-report symptom and quality of life questionnaire for individuals with anal incontinence – the ICIQ-B.

A driving ambition since her early PhD research has been to bridge the gap between people with bladder and bowel symptoms and the treatments that can help. She has spent 20 years focusing on developing research to improve outcomes for all with bladder and bowel symptoms and am passionate about improving the experience for individuals with a focus on self-help and service development.

Nikki is also the Director of the Bladder and Bowel CONfidence Health Integration Team (@babconHIT) taking a city- and system-wide approach to improvements in continence care provision and the wider societal experience of living with bladder and bowel symptoms. They are working collectively to raise the profile of bladder and bowel care through education, research and integrating care across systems, ensuring collaboration with patients and the public in all they do.

Follow Nikki on Twitter for all things related to continence care research: @NikkiC07

Katie Mashingaidze

Katie’s nursing career has focused on stroke care, neurological rehabilitation, and the care of older people. With a strong commitment to dignity and patient safety, she has drawn on the skills and experience gained across these specialties to develop a career in continence care and promotion.

With a particular interest in neurogenic bladder and bowel dysfunction, Katie has established a specialist inpatient continence service for people following stroke, alongside developing a wider specialist continence service across the acute inpatient setting. She is passionate about promoting value-based procurement and prioritising toileting over containment products during hospital admissions.

Katie’s work in promoting continence for all has been nationally recognised, and she is a recent recipient of a Nursing Times Award for continence care and promotion. Viewing continence as a key link between patient experience and safety, she has also developed an umbrella service within the acute setting, bringing continence promotion together with tissue viability and falls prevention to support holistic assessment and person-centred care.

Katie is keen to collaborate at local and national level to influence best practice and improve continence care across services. She is currently studying for a PhD and is preparing to begin data collection exploring the lived experiences of older unpaid family carers who support a loved one at home living with incontinence.

Jenny McCarthy

Regional Lead Nurse (North) for the Emerald Nursing Service at B.Braun Medical

Jenny has worked for most of her career within Bladder and Bowel care, including Primary, Secondary and Private Health care. Having started her career in Urology in 1992, she has worked as a Continence Nurse for 17 years and as a Urogynae Specialist Nurse for seven years. She currently works as a Clinical Nurse Specialist for the Emerald Nursing Team at BBraun Medical. 

Jenny has been fortunate to be involved in many changes within the specialty including service redesign and development of Level 1and 2 continence clinics and an integrated continence service, which was subsequently adopted by the Department of Health as a model of service delivery. She also contributed to the development of treatment pathways, adopted by Map of Medicine. She has a strong ethos of quality improvement, having developed a catheter pathway which was shortlisted for a Nursing Times Awards and development of the specification for a community TWOC service, which was also short listed.

Jenny is an Independent Prescriber and has experience in managing pelvic floor dysfunction, urinary incontinence, urodynamics and voiding dysfunction. Her area of special interest is female incontinence. 

Davina Richardson

Prior to becoming a children’s bladder and bowel nurse Davina worked on acute paediatric wards and then with children with life limiting conditions and complex health needs.

Davina set up and ran a new community-based NHS service for children with functional bladder and bowel issues including constipation, soiling, day and night-time wetting, delayed toilet training and provision of products to children not able to be continent.

Davina joined the team at Bladder and Bowel UK in 2015, where her role includes providing general advice and support to families, young people and professionals via the helpline. She has also been a co-applicant or a member of the stakeholder group in research studies, has worked with commercial companies on specific projects and developments to improve continence care to children and young people and have been involved in campaigns to promote World Bedwetting Week.

Davina has been involved with national groups and provides bespoke training on bladder and bowel health to level one and level two services, has spoken nationally for third party organisations, provided sessions for parent groups and published in peer reviewed journals for professionals. She has been involved in and lead on development of national guidance documents and supported areas wanting to develop services for paediatric bladder and bowel care. Davina is working with others to help develop the new RCN guidance on care of children with daytime urinary incontinence.

Davina is enthusiastic about breaking the taboo of bladder and bowel issues and working in diverse ways to ensure that children and young people are offered optimum support to reach their potential. She is delighted to be part of the RCN Bladder and Bowel Forum.