Welcome to our first quarterly newsletter from the British Thoracic Society (BTS) Nurse Advisory

Group (NAG). The BTS NAG aims to empower respiratory nurses nationally to provide
compassionate, evidenced based care. This newsletter will be a celebration of good practice, a
regular source for frontline innovation, and news of exciting developments within all disciplines of
respiratory nursing care.
The BTS have a strong and longstanding history of supporting respiratory nursing. This support was
formally recognised in 2008 with the establishment of the NAG and thereby embedding a nursing
perspective in all aspects BTS strategy and innovation.
The main roles of the NAG include:
ensure that the work of the Society fully reflects the respiratory nursing dimension
advise the Society on matters which influence the care of patients from the perspective of the
respiratory nurse, (including treatment, therapy and procedures; appropriate standards of care
and resources; and education and research requirements).
be the main channel through which the Society can receive the views of nurse members and
through which the Society can send information to members about the areas mentioned above.
have a pivotal role in communication and linking together the wide range of activities within
differing specialist nursing areas as well as generic issues. It will be at the centre of a new
communications "hub" for nurse members.
The current NAG Chair is Dr Janelle Yorke, who works closely with other members to keep the BTS
abreast with respiratory nursing activities. NAG members include: Joseph Annandale, Andrew
Booth, Sadie Clayton, Matthew Hodson, Susan Hope, Sandra Olive, Samantha Prigmore, Emma
Vincent.
BTS Winter Meeting whats in it for nurses?
During the 2014 conference BTS NAG members reviewed abstracts that had been submitted by
nurses. This year the presentations were varied in their themes. However there were noticeable
subsets including tele-monitoring, dashboards and intelligence information systems. Currently
there are increasing levels of this kind of work, with nurses highlighting the notions of integrated
care, equality for all patients and the improvement in channels of communication. At the
conference nurses were speculating how these systems were enhancing the roles of specialist nurses
and matrons (by remotely monitoring patients physiological data, whilst trying not to hinder patient
independence). In particular the presenters were also sharing their experiences of trying to predict
and respond to patient need, and how they felt that this technology had enhanced their practice.
What was clear from these nurses was that whatever the economic implications of these systems,
there seems to be a definite snowball effect, and more projects appear to be evolving to aid patients
with long term respiratory conditions in this manner. It is therefore vital that as a larger community,
we share our experience, findings and reflections on advances in respiratory care that are especially
pertinent to nursing and the patient experience.
VANGUARD Update
The VANGUARD (Value Added Nursing Guaranteed in Respiratory Domains) is an exciting project
that the BTS NAG secured funding for in late 2013. The project is led by Sam Prigmore, who is also
undertaking her PhD supervised by Janelle Yorke and Ann Caress at the University of Manchester.

The aim is to develop and feasibility test a set of Respiratory Nurse Sensitive Outcome Indicators for
people with COPD. The study is using a mixed methods approach involving three stages:
Stage 1 to identify and rank the importance of symptoms and experiences of people with COPD
Stage 2 To review the evidence base for the treatment and interventions for the symptoms
experience identified in stage 1 and to investigate if they could be sensitive to nursing and
Stage 3 will involve testing the tool for validity, reliability and feasibility of use across several sites in
the UK.
Stage 1 has been completed with a series of consensus meetings to rank the importance of the
identified symptoms and experiences from the review of the literature. This has been achieved using
the nominal group technique in 4 meetings held for people with COPD and their carers and a
meeting with Respiratory Nurse Specialists.
We are currently reviewing the evidence base for the management of the identified symptoms and
experiences, to see if they are sensitive to nursing (Stage 2). We have also identified potential sites
for stage 3. A VANGUARD up-date will be provided in each newsletter.
CONGRATULATIONS to the following respiratory nurses:
Dr Iain Armstrong, Nurse Consultant for pulmonary hypertension, Royal Hallamshire Hospital
awarded his Professional Doctorate
Mr Matt Hodson MBE, COPD Nurse Consultant, Homerton Hospital, awarded a MBE
Please send any news items to Janelle.yorke@manchester.ac.uk or emmavincent@gmail.com