A member of the Jersey Heart Team has become a Nurse Consultant – the first time this highly specialised role has been created within the physical health field in Jersey.
Nurse Consultants are registered Nurses who have specialised in a chosen area of practice. Angela Hall, who has been a member of the Heart Team since 2011, achieved the position after demonstrating that she has an advanced level of clinical practice, autonomy and leadership in her work and has also undertaken research.
Angela, a specialist in arrhythmias has been keen to establish a Nurse Consultant role in Jersey for some time. The mum to Ryan,14, and Katie, 7, said: "I feel this is a huge step for nursing in Jersey. It was a lot of hard work that I really needed to be persistent with, but I did, because I felt strongly that we needed to be moving in this direction locally.
"The role and title reflects a certain level of practice at which I am now operating. I am passionate about advanced nursing roles whilst ensuring these are assigned appropriately.”
Angela, who lives in St Peter, is not only a Nurse Consultant but also has successfully completed doctorate level studies and will be Dr Angela Hall following her PhD success.
She said: "I have always studied - I’m not quite sure why – but I always want to learn and progress. There is so much out there to know. I am hugely interested in Cardiology and specifically, heart rhythm management. I naively entered the PhD programme, not fully knowing what was expected.”
Angela studied with Lancaster University but the majority of the work was self-taught and self-directed. Her PhD title was: ‘Should we be screening people with diabetes, for atrial fibrillation?’
Her interest came as she was seeing more patients with atrial fibrillation who also had diabetes as a coexisting medical condition.
Angela, who qualified as a nurse in 1999 and has worked in the Intensive Care Unit previously, said:
“The PhD was part-time and I worked full-time as an Arrhythmia Nurse Specialist throughout. I had four to seven years to complete this, and did so in four years. It was incredibly gruelling to do this whilst working, looking after my young children and enduring a pandemic! Covid also put a stop to research activity briefly due to isolating requirements and redeployment to ICU.”
Angela, who published her findings in medical journals throughout her studies, can now list PhD, MSc, BSc (hons) after her name. She credits the cardiology team as a whole and Dr Andrew Mitchell, Consultant Cardiologist, who set up the Jersey Heart Team, for ensuring that she continued with and completed her PhD.
She said: "Dr Mitchell was massively instrumental throughout – he pushed me to embark on this, encouraged me constantly and acted as my clinical supervisor. There were many times in the first year, that I wanted to stop!
"I am passionate to now support others in their doctoral level studies. Not enough nurses follow this path. I chose to undertake quantitative and qualitative research, resulting in a mixed-methods approach. Nurses often follow the qualitative route, so I am also keen to help others push out of their comfort zone, in order to undertake primary research and understand all that is encompassed in research activity.”
Dr Andrew Mitchell said: "Angela is an amazing nurse and a core member of the Jersey Heart Team. We are so proud of her achievements over the years and the high quality cardiac care she gives her patients. Research is a vital part of modern clinical care and Angela’s success in this field is an inspiration to nurses on Island as well as in the UK.”
Chief Nurse Rose Naylor said: “Angela, who is a previous National Nurse of the Year award winner, is an amazing nurse and a massive inspiration to myself and her fellow nurses. The dedication and clinical skill she has shown to her field is exceptional, on a local, national and international level and Jersey is very lucky to have her.”
Government of Jersey News Release