Speakers

Fiona Downie is a senior lecturer in tissue viability at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK. She recently retired from her clinical post of nurse consultant in Tissue Viability in an acute cardiothoracic hospital. Her interest in tissue viability has a 24 year history. Her particular interests are in acute wounds that fail to heal, and the influence of bioburden in wound healing. In addition, she is especially interested in: SSI surveillance; pressure ulcer risk assessment /classification. She has completed an MSc in wound healing and tissue repair from the medical school, Cardiff University, Wales. Her research study, whilst undertaking her MSc, looked at nurses’ and doctors’ knowledge in relation to the practice of wound swabbing. She has completed a Post Grad Certificate in Education, gaining a distinction for this.

Heidi has been a Tissue Viability Nurse for 18 years. She has worked in both acute and primary care. She is currently the Tissue Viability Services Lead for Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust. This service includes a tissue viability team, a specialist leg ulcer team and a lymphoedema specialist service. She is a Past Chair of the Tissue Viability Society and an honorary lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire. Her passions centre around education, improving services for patients and team development. She is also published under the name of Guy.

Mark (a founder member of the Wound Care Society in 1988) is currently working as a Nurse Consultant/Associate Lecturer – Tissue Viability, with affiliations to Lincolnshire Health Care Services and the Universities of Lincoln and Hertfordshire. His stated objective, the ‘promotion of evidence-based best practice’. He has 250+ publications to his name and has been a Council member of the TVS, EPUAP and EWMA. He is currently Chair of the Leg Ulcer Forum; a member of several advisory boards and is often asked to give professional advice to NICE and the RCN. He has won many awards throughout his career, most recently the BJN Pressure Care Nurse of the Year and he is often asked to present at National and International educational events. He welcomes your participation in this educational initiative.

Brenda was first appointed as a community tissue viability nurse in 1992 and developed a wealth of experience in tissue viability prior to becoming a Nurse Consultant in 2008 for both acute and community services. During her time in tissue viability she has been instrumental in developing local wound care services including leg ulcer prevention and management and pressure ulcer prevention and management. The local leg ulcer services encompassed the development of nurse led clinics, educational programmes both for community staff and the curriculum development and delivery of the former ENB N18 course at the Sheffield University. Brenda has been involved in primary research as investigator, advisor, steering committee member and data monitoring committee member and has many publications to her name. Brenda has also been awarded a travel scholarship, won a Journal of Wound Care award for primary research and a further two for literature reviews also a Wounds UK award for chronic oedema management. A pinnacle of her career came in 2009 when awarded an MBE in the birthday honours list for services to healthcare.

Sarah spent 39 years working within the NHS with much of this time in the community. She worked for 18 years as a District nurse, community practice teacher and clinical development lead, and for 12 years was clinical lead of a specialist Tissue Viability team. After re-locating to beautiful Cumbria, Sarah now practises as an independent advisor/ educator through her own Tissue Viability consultancy business. Sarah is currently vice chair for the Legs Matter campaign and a member of the National Wound Care Strategy Programme (NWCSP) lower limb group. She is passionate about improving the knowledge and skills of clinicians delivering lower limb care and also believes that raising patient and public awareness of lower limb conditions (including leg ulceration) is essential for disease prevention and early treatment intervention.