Programme announced for 2021

Margaret Vance is Nurse Consultant in Gastroenterology at the Wolfson unit for endoscopy at St Mark’s hospital. She leads a team of specialist research nurses and nurse endoscopists providing gastroscopy, flexible sigmoidoscopy, colonoscopy and capsule endoscopy at St Mark’s Hospital. Margaret has a wide experience of training both nurses and doctors in flexible sigmoidoscopy and colonoscopy and developed the first completely nurse-led theoretical and practical flexible sigmoidoscopy training programme at degree/MSc level for trainee nurse endoscopists in the UK. She has been involved in the development and implementation of all Wolfson Unit training programmes for both doctors and nurses and has lectured and demonstrated colonoscopy skills at both national and international endoscopy conferences. She was the first nurse in the UK to be accredited as a bowel cancer screener, performing colonoscopy screening and is a national bowel cancer screening assessor for the UK screening accreditation process. She has been the chief endoscopist on several research trials including detection of dysplasia in patients with an Ileoanal pouch, comparison of virtual colonoscopy to conventional flexible sigmoidoscopy and colonoscopy, the development and efficacy of nurse-led rectal bleeding clinics and has assisted as an expert endoscopist on all major trials performed within the Wolfson Unit for Endoscopy St Mark’s Hospital.

Lisa completed her nurse training at the North London College of Health Studies, London, UK. She has over 20 years experience working as an inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) nurse specialist and has been responsible for the creation and development of IBD nursing services at The Whittington Hospital NHS Trust, St Mark’s Hospital/LNWH NHS Trust and most recently The Royal London Hospital, Barts Health. Lisa has published on topics including IBD treatment and the contribution of specialist nurses to the management of patients with inflammatory bowel disease, and has contributed in a number of collaborative publications looking at the provision of IBD care both nationally and internationally, including N-ECCO consensus statements for IBD nurses, the 2019 BSG guidelines and ECCO standards of care. She currently represents the RCN on the IBDUK board, who have recently updated the UK IBD Standards of Care. She is actively involved with education of both pre and post registration nurses regarding management of IBD, and delivery of specialist services. She has had active roles within organisations related to the specialty of IBD, including as secretary for the Royal College of Nursing IBD Special Interest group, Nurse Representative for the British Society of Gastroenterology IBD Section and Chair of N-ECCO. Since March 2019 she has been employed as Project Manager, IBD Nursing, with Crohn’s & Colitis UK, working with Isobel Mason and the charity’s Health Service Development Team on their campaign ‘More IBD Nurses – Better Care’, aiming to increase IBD nursing numbers throughout the UK and standardise training and support for nurses in post. Lisa's Twitter: @LisaYounge2

Sonya Chelvanayagam MSc, RN, PgDip (Learning & Teaching) is a lecturer in mental health nursing at Bournemouth University. She is a registered mental health nurse and adult nurse who has worked in a variety of care services such as HIV and gastroenterology. This has involved Sonya in working with people who experience either physical or mental illnesses or a combination of physical symptoms and mental health problems. More recently she has worked in a hospice and currently works two days a month in a day hospice in Poole. This clinical experience led her to explore end of life care for people experiencing mental illness which is the topic of her PhD thesis.

Ellie Bradshaw has been a gastrointestinal specialist nurse at St Mark’s Hospital, London, for 12 years. She has a background in stoma care and biofeedback. At this time, she is London's first community gastroenterology nurse specialising in both upper and lower GI functional conditions.

Sharon began her nursing career in 1997, working in the field of gastroenterology. Sharon went onto develop a dedicated IBD service in 2000, working alongside gastroenterologists and surgeons. The service expanded to incorporate telephone clinics, nurse-led clinics across the Trust and within the community setting. In 2004 Sharon was awarded a BA in nursing, qualifying as an Independent nurse prescriber in 2008. In 2007 and 2011 Sharon published articles for Gastroenterology Nursing looking at managing IBD services. Sharon was awarded her Masters, in Nursing with NMC SPQ in 2018. The service continues to be expanded to meet the needs of new and existing patients

Carolyn has worked in stoma care since 2004 and qualified as a Nurse Independent Prescriber in 2009. Over the course of her career in stoma care she has worked in the NHS and currently as a senior stoma nurse specialist for Hollister Limited working in collaboration with NHS stoma care teams mainly within the North West. Carolyn has presented both internationally and nationally and additionally has been published in national and international nursing journals. Carolyn has a passion for providing and sharing best practice in stoma and skin health with a keen interest in nurse prescribing of which she was nominate and short listed for the BJN Stoma Nurse of the Year Award after establishing and facilitating the first Stoma Nurse Prescribing Forum in the UK.