Laura is a Clinical Nurse Specialist for Children & Young people’s asthma for Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust in North-East London.
Laura trained in Southampton and her background before specialising in asthma is acute and urgent paediatrics, having worked in the Paediatric Emergency Assessment Unit in Southampton. During this time, she was seconded to the Emergency Department and enjoyed it so much she asked for another. Her first Sister post was in the Children’s Emergency Department at Basildon after moving back to her home county of Essex.
Laura’s first asthma role was at Evelina London Children’s Hospital where she was lucky enough to learn and consolidate her first year of specialist nursing under a fantastically experienced team. Next, she was part of the original clinical team establishing the Children & Young People’s Health Partnership in Lambeth & Southwark. This gave Laura an insight into research in action, the impact of health inequality and working alongside a bespoke mental health team indulged her interest in the emotional and psychological impact of living with asthma, and vice versa. During this role Laura worked closely with primary care for the first time and realised the importance of cross-sector working and collaboration.
Laura then moved to North-East London to establish the asthma nursing team for BHRUT following a regulation 28 report and has spent the last few years working across secondary and primary care. Laura and the team have worked hard to build a safe and effective patient pathway which overlaps effectively with the adult service. Laura created a whole set of trust approved, standardised and evidence-based resources and the team continue to standardise care across a busy Trust and its three incredibly diverse Boroughs. They have built strong links with tertiary care against the action plan, to establish the service in the already strong NE London network. During the pandemic they embraced remote technology to provide teaching to schools and the primary care networks in response to the action plan and to continue the learning programme despite the global crisis.
Laura’s passion is self-management and she enjoys empowering children and young people in learning to care for their own asthma and navigating the health system – and, of course, support the family in doing so. She has a keen interest in the emotional and psychological aspects of asthma, along with supporting the holistic needs of the families in her care.
Laura enjoys teaching as well as learning, and has started writing for publication since joining NPRANG in 2017, having met Viv whilst undertaking her postgraduate asthma qualification. She was proud to be accepted to the Education subcommittee in 2021. Laura writes and illustrates in her spare time, but is finding more often that this gently filtering into her work life!
