Children’s Cardiac Nurse Specialist services

My name is Araminta Stafford. I am an extension of the Children’s Cardiac Nurse Specialist services at LGI and I offer specialised cardiac care closer to home for babies, children and teenagers from 0-16 years. I am responsible for supporting the paediatricians with expertise in cardiology (PECS) to provide appropriate and timely care for a managed caseload of children with cardiac diagnoses and investigations as well as supporting the specialist cardiologist in their visiting clinics twice a month.

Our visiting cardiologist from LGI is Dr Fiona Willcoxson.

The five PECs locally are:

  1. Dr Helen Jepps
  2. Dr Bex Newbegin
  3. Dr Farhana Khalil
  4. Dr Sam Wallis
  5. Dr Yousef Gargani

We average three or four clinics every week but occasionally there can be up to six cardiology clinics per week for a cohort of patients of approximately 900+ patients. My current cardiac caseload on SystmOne is approx 190 children.

I take referrals directly from the PECs locally via clinic contacts, referrals from the inpatient ward at Bradford (Ward 30) and the cardiac service at LGI (Ward L51 and the Leeds Cardiac CNS team).

Key roles include
  • Home visits for patients on the High and medium risk pathways (usually duct dependant babies who’ve had their first stage of surgery and are awaiting further surgery). These babies require weekly monitoring of oxygen saturations, weight monitoring and assessment of general wellbeing but particularly feeding and work of breathing.
  • Emotional support in clinic and ongoing follow up via phone calls/texts and providing educational resources either physically or via QR codes.
  • Arranging and chasing up of clinical investigations and test results if not already arranged by the PEC.
  • Nurse led support with patients suffering palpitations/chest pains who need an AliveCor device (handheld ECG monitoring at home – machines funded by CHSF)
  • Supporting letters and DLA applications
  • INR comparisons/quality control checks with home INR testing
  • Liaising with the specialist cardiac teams at LGI, particularly for pre-operative patients
  • Regular liaison with other specialist nursing services e.g. Children’s community nursing team, palliative team, hospices and play specialist service.
  • Supporting schools with their cardiac pupils – especially the very fragile ones who attend mainstream settings.
  • Report writing for EHCPs or amending management plans.
  • Visiting cardiac patients on the ward if needed and supporting nursing staff on the ward with clinical queries or advice
  • Education for nursing staff.
  • If I need any support with my caseload during periods of absence or annual leave, the CCNT can offer support where capacity allows.

Contact

I can be contacted on 07901202078 and the cardiac team secretary can be contacted on 01274 366339.

Useful links

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