Alison Kent - Forum Chair

Rheumatology Nurse Manager at Salisbury Foundation Trust Hospital

Alison Kent (RGN) is a Rheumatology Nurse Manager at Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust Hospital. She has been working in Rheumatology for over 30 years.

With both a personal and professional interest, she feels motivated to educate and raise awareness of rheumatological conditions and the impact of living with a long-term disease. Alison is currently an active member of the BSR group for the updating of bDmards and tsDmards. She has been involved with several task forces in EULAR including those focused on the monitoring of co-morbidities, information dissemination, the safe use of gluco-steroids, difficult to treat RA and patients as research partners and has co-authored on several publications.

Alison is currently working with the EULAR task force for the updating of Vaccinations in IMD guidelines. She holds an EMCC accredited certificate in coaching and is passionate about using coaching skills in a healthcare settings to improve patient focused goal setting and supporting patient empowerment. She has participated in government lobbying and the setting of European standards for people with musculoskeletal diseases. She is also a volunteer for NRAS and is a MSK Champion for Versus Arthritis.

Alison feels it has been extremely exciting and a privilege to have been working in an area of medicine that has, and is, developing so quickly thanks to new therapies and treatment approaches whilst maintaining a patient centred approach to care.

Helen Lee - Vice Chair

Helen qualified as a children’s nurse in Sheffield in 1999 and started work as a Staff Nurse on the Neonatal Surgical Unit at Sheffield Children’s Hospital. She moved onto the daycare unit in 2005 and particularly enjoyed looking after the handful of rheumatology patients who attended each week for treatment. She was fortunate to be one of two nurses who were asked to set up rheumatology nursing service and became a full time rheumatology nurse in 2010 just prior to Sheffield launching its paediatric rheumatology service. Helen is now the lead nurse for this service, runs her own review clinics each week and manages the nursing team comprising of 5 nurses, a support worker and an administrator.

Helen is passionate about helping children and young people with procedural anxiety and does a joint monthly clinic with the team psychologist as well as helping run procedural anxiety workshops for parents with young children who are under the rheumatology team.  

Helen enjoys raising awareness of JIA and other rheumatological conditions and provides ward updates as well as student teaching on rheumatology. She has also run the London Marathon twice in 2014 for Arthritis Research and then in 2019 for Versus Arthritis.   

Gail Burbage

Since being appointed as a Rheumatology Specialist Nurse in 1997 Gail has been instrumental in service transformation into a modern truly multidisciplinary and community orientated service providing support to patients, carers and health professionals. Developing nurse led clinics to improve quality of care, focussing on patient education and early intervention. She subsequently received the Chairman’s Nurse of the Year Award and ARC / RCN Silver Medal.

Gail has been involved in the production of the RCN, BSR, and NICE guidance and published in nursing journals. In addition to her clinical role Gail was previously Head of Service for Rheumatology, managing the medical team, budget and lead service development. In recent year she moved to Nottingham as a Consultant Nurse, focusing on joint injections, service transformation and succession planning for rheumatology nurses whilst supporting nurse education and development.

Heather Smee

Heather's nursing career started in London where she underwent her training at Bart's Nursing college, in paediatric nursing. A long and varied career has led her to now work as a paediatric rheumatology Nurse specialist at Bristol Children's Hospital, over the last ten years, supporting children and families navigating chronic autoimmune and inflammatory conditions. She is passionate about holistic, family-centered care, patient education, and advocating for young patients with complex health needs.

Working in paediatric rheumatology has strengthened her appreciation for multidisciplinary collaboration, long-term care planning, and the resilience of children living with chronic illness. She is particularly interested in improving patient experiences, promoting adherence through education, and staying current with evidence-based practice. Heather joined this forum to connect with other nurses, share insights, learn from diverse clinical experiences, and contribute to thoughtful discussions about paediatric and specialty care. She is looking forward to growing together as professionals and making a meaningful impact in our field.

Joanne Dobson

I am a Rheumatology and Research Nurse, with over 20 years’ experience in this field. I started as a research nurse, moving to clinical nurse specialist then the role of Matron. Since my move from London to Edinburgh I have once again returned to research, and have a particular interest in Fatigue Management. I am currently involved in several research projects, most recently the FLIP – Fatigue in Lupus Intervention Programmes and have had abstracts accepted at EULAR and SLEuro conferences regarding this difficult to manage and significantly impactful symptom of Rheumatic diseases. My approach is holistic and I work with patients to improve treatment pathways, lifestyle management approaches and disease management strategies all with the ultimate aim of remission.