Hannah Kramer has recently joined the Paediatric Allergy team at The Evelina Children’s Hospital in London. Prior to joining the team at The Evelina, she was part of the Paediatric Allergy Research team at St Mary’s Hospital, working on both peanut and cow’s milk immunotherapy trials. Her first exposure to the world of allergy was during her time working at The Harley Street Clinic and The Portland Hospital where she first began supporting consultant clinics, establishing a nurse-led challenge and immunotherapy service. Before qualifying as a nurse she obtained a BSc in psychology at Newcastle University. She completed her MSc last year with my final piece of work centring around the quality of life in teenagers with food allergy.
Allergy is a fascinating speciality to work in, my depth of empathy for my patients drives me to provide the highest standards of care to each patient and family I meet.
Joanne Miles qualified with a BA Hons in Children’s Nursing in 2001 from Oxford Brookes University. Joanne worked for many years on Paediatric intensive care at Great Ormond Street Hospital NHS Trust before becoming a Clinical Nurse specialist in various roles. She took on the unique role of Infant lung function nurse specialist where she began her advanced nurse practice qualification. From there she became the complex asthma CNS at Great Ormond street Hospital NHS Trust which sparked her enthusiasm for allergy. Joanne graduated from London South Bank University in 2019 with a postgraduate diploma with distinction Children’s Advanced Nurse Practice and a postgraduate certificate with distinction non-medical prescribing. Joanne joined the allergy team at Luton and Dunstable Hospital in 2020 taking on the role of paediatric allergy clinical nurse specialist. Here Joanne has established nurse led asthma clinics and works as part of the team to provide nurse-led challenges, skin prick testing and supporting consultant clinics.
Conference RepresentativeRebecca Batt qualified as an RGN/RSCN in 1993 from Sheffield School of Nursing. She spent ten years working in Paediatric Intensive Care at Great Ormond Street and Toronto Sick Children’s Hospital. She gained a BSc (Hons) from London South Bank University in Paediatric Intensive Care Nursing in 2004. She was a Practice Educator at GOSH before starting as a Nurse Specialist at Asthma UK. This led to an interest in Paediatric Allergy and she began her career in allergy in 2007 when she became a Paediatric Allergy Clinical Nurse Specialist at King’s College Hospital. She gained the MSc in Allergy from Imperial College, London in 2011 with Distinction. She is now an Advanced Nurse Practitioner at The Evelina London Children’s Hospital and is also a Non-Medical Prescriber.
Rebecca is an Advanced Nurse Practitioner and Non-Medical Prescriber at the Evelina London Children’s Hospital. She runs nurse led clinics and is the Senior Clinical Lead for the nursing team and regularly speaks at national study events and conferences. She lectures at LSBU on the Advanced Nurse Practitioner Pathway and the Non-Medical Prescribing Course and on the Allergy MSc at Imperial College, London. She is a Course Director for the Allergy Academy and organises national study events for allergy healthcare professionals across the country.
Jill Edmonds qualified as an adult nurse in 2001 and since then has been working in a variety of areas including Accident & Emergency, Intensive care and Cardiology. She began working in Immunology in 2015 and has been the lead nurse for the last two years. She now sits on the BSACI nurse committee and is a trustee of UK Primary Immunodeficiency Network (UKPIN). She has a special interest in drug allergy, particularly peri-operative anaphylaxis and is currently writing her dissertation assessing the benefits of these particular specialist clinics.
Website Co-ordinatorDeborah Hughes
I qualified as an adult nurse at St Bartholomew’s School of Nursing in 1996. I have worked within medicine, ENT and day surgery. I became a CNS in Allergy and Immunology at Manchester in 2005, gaining experience in both centres with exposure to immunology and allergy including food and drug challenges. During this time I gained my CAS in Allergy (Imperial University ) I was a unit manager at Sheffield then came home to work at Royal Stoke Hospital. Royal Stoke is an emerging service and recently gained both accreditations in Allergy and Immunology (IQAS/ QPIDS). To support my ANP role at Stoke I am in my second year of MSc Advanced Clinical Practice (Cumbria University).
James GardnerJames qualified at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London as a Paediatric Nurse and, after working in general paediatrics/haematology, joined the allergy team at St Mary’s Hospital, London then for many years was the lead allergy nurse at the Royal Free Hospital & Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital, both in London.
He is currently the Children’s and Young Persons Allergy Nurse Consultant at the Great North Children’s Hospital in Newcastle and also Associate Clinical Lecturer in Newcastle University where he is Lead of the Allergy E-module programme.
He previously completed his MSc in Allergy from the University of Southampton and focused on the use of component resolved diagnostics in peanut allergy. He is a non-medical prescriber.
His main research interests are in food allergy, allergic rhinitis and MHealth.
He is involved with many food allergy support groups and regularly on various allergy social media groups (Twitter @allergynurseuk)
Sarah BurrellSarah qualified as an adult nurse at The Middlesex Hospital London, and after working many years in intensive care, followed by primary care, moved into clinical research. She is currently working as a Senior Paediatric Research Nurse at St. Mary’s Hospital Paddington specialising in food immunotherapy studies.
Awarded a Dean’s scholarship by Imperial College London to complete her MSc in Allergy, Sarah won the Jill Warner Prize for the MSc project with the greatest impact on patient care.
Sarah’s particular interests include food allergy and patient/public involvement in research. Last year, she presented the Boiled Oral Peanut Immunotherapy (BOPI) team’s work at the North West London Clinical Research Awards, which won the prize for ‘Excellence in Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement.’ Sarah is currently involved in setting up an oral immunotherapy service at St. Mary’s Hospital, showing how research may improve the management care pathways, ensuring that the patient is at the centre of care delivery.
Shauna McKibbenShauna McKibben qualified in adult nursing from Queen’s University, Belfast. She started her clinical career at the Royal Brompton Hospital, London and has held clinical posts across cardiothoracic surgery, respiratory and allergy.
In 2020 she was awarded a PhD in Primary Care and Public Health, funded by Asthma UK Centre for Applied Research and Queen Mary University of London.
She is an Adult Allergy and Asthma Clinical Nurse Specialist at St Mary’s Hospital, London. She is currently undertaking a PG Cert in Allergy at Southampton University.
Her interests include allergic rhinitis, drug allergy, asthma, patient experience and self-management, and improving allergy management across primary and secondary care.