Annette was appointed as a Clinical Nurse Specialist into a Consultant led OPAT service in 2009 to provide standardisation of practice, develop the skills to insert PICCs and MIDLINEs for OPAT.
In the 1st 2 years, the service attended to 120 patients with improved outcomes
The service quickly gained success and expanded to other sites. In addition, Annette’s role in organisational leadership with PICC and MIDLINE insertions, care and maintenance of central venous access devices expanded with the development of organisation wide trust policies and practice.
With her background in Haemato- Oncology and working closely with the OPAT Pharmacist, facilitation and delivery of OPAT. Care of her Palliative OPAT patients is one of her many passions; she wrote article on ‘how nurses cope with bereavement after the death their patients” this got published in the 2009.
Her previous degree in International Marketing and Hospitality Management compliments her patience when dealing with OPAT and patients with difficult venous access.
Annette became an independent Non- Medical Prescriber in 2012 and this enabled the effective delivery of OPAT, weekly reviews and emergency cover for the OPAT pharmacist whilst remaining a strong antimicrobial steward.as per BSAC recommendations.
Annette has delivered lectures nationally and internationally in the fields of OPAT, intravenous administration of antimicrobials and care and maintenance of vascular access devices. She has also published articles for BSAC. She is a member of Royal College of Nursing, an editor and publisher for Nursing Times and Nursing Standard.
Annette’s passion lies I person empowerment which she delivered through teaching/training patients/ carers, staff and community nurses. Standardisation of practice across sites in infusion of antimicrobial therapy remains paramount to her practice; this she describes as personal satisfaction.