Laura Farnham
Paediatric Advanced Nurse Practitioner
Children's Community Nursing Service, Evelina London Children's Hospital, London
I have been a Registered children’s nurse for 19 years, acquiring vast knowledge, experience and skills both within the Paediatric acute and community setting, with a strong passion for nurse-led services and service development.
In 2016 an opportunity arose, where I was appointed senior nurse to lead a new Hospital at Home (H@H) team at Kings College Hospital, as part of 3 borough pilot in London. I was eager to be involved in developing a nurse-delivered H@H model where children would be supported at home and seen multiple times per day, including out-of-hours care, to support our local population with a clear focus on health promotion to help aid hospital avoidance and early discharge.
I have continued to develop throughout the last 8 years and now work as the Advanced Nurse Practitioner for the H@H team within the Children's Community Nursing Service (CCNS) at Evelina London. Service development and research have been a big aspect of my career. I have completed Green Belt training in quality improvement, together with research in health and social care and professional development at level 7. This has enabled me to evolve as a practitioner and utilise appropriate tools to help aid the development of our existing children’s hospital at home service, expanding our offer out to GPs within Lambeth and Southwark. A paediatric acute complex pathway has been developed enabling self-referrals onto our virtual ward, working collaboratively with our Acute paediatric Team both at Evelina London Children’s Hospital and Kings College Hospital London. My role includes advancing and improving standards of care by completing and reviewing quality audits. This interest in data collection alongside my clinical role led me to become a lead author of the article titled “Effect of a Children’s at–home nursing team on Reducing Emergency Admissions” which was used to critique and provide support to other areas in the country to set up similar services.
As a result, I have presented and attended teaching conferences both locally and nationally, representing H@H service and vision, and supporting multiple new services to set up similar services alike with the lead nurse.