The spinal advanced nurse practitioner (ANP) team is made up of experienced senior clinical nurses with advanced skills studied at masters level, with a combined background and experience in critical care, major trauma, neurosciences, trauma and orthopaedics.

They work closely with the ward nursing, medical and multi-disciplinary teams (MDTs) to help provide safe and effective patient care and ward flow. They provide a 7 day a week (daytime) service which includes

participating in the daily ward round
ordering and interpreting tests and investigations
reviewing patients on the wards
prescribing medication
participating in the timely discharge and transfer process of the ward patients to and from the Wessex spinal centre
teaching patients and other MDT members.

They liaise with various ward areas, teams and hospitals on the on-going care and management of patients with spinal conditions with the aim being to ensure ongoing seamless continuity of their care and management.

The spinal ANPs also run a weekly spine enhanced recovery seminar where pre-operative patients are invited to attend a morning session on what to expect and how to prepare for their elective spinal surgery, run in conjunction with the ward physiotherapy team.

Some of the feedback from these sessions has been:

‘..a very, very good idea’.

‘ ..very impressed, the speaker, was absolutely brilliant, very friendly and calm and at the end spoke to us and made us feel like she had all the time in the world to speak to us’.

‘..found it very helpful and I felt very prepared’.

‘..very good, lots of very good information’.

On discharge from hospital, patients that have attended the spine seminar are followed up with a telephone consultation to monitor their progress once home.

The spinal ANP team endeavour to provide a friendly, personalised, patient centred approach to care and a positive patient hospital experience.