Lead Podiatrist for Diabetes, Advanced Clinical Practitioner, Deputy Head of Podiatry and Orthotics BCUHB
As one of our Clinical Champions, Nicola plans to improve outcomes for people with active foot disease by focusing on improving access to specialist services for intervention and multidisciplinary care in both the inpatient and outpatient setting with a particular aim on developing robust end to end pathways.
Nicola will further enhance clinical practice within the high-risk podiatry team, introducing advanced vascular assessment clinics, with the support of vascular nurse specialists, for patients at moderate risk of foot disease in order to provide tailored treatment plans to improve long term outcomes.
Nicola aims to improve communication with the primary care foot screening service. She feels this is fundamental in ensuring all patients who require the care and specific expertise of the foot protection team are referred appropriately and can access the service for care, focusing on patient activation and co-production.
Background
Nicola is an experienced specialist podiatrist with expertise in the management of the complex diabetic foot. She leads the community foot protection team, is a member of the All Wales Strategic Diabetic Foot Network group and is deputy head of the Podiatry & Orthotics department East Area BCUHB.
She gained her Master's of Science in Advanced Clinical Practice in 2019 and qualified as one of the first independent prescribing podiatrists in Wales in 2016. This enables her to prescribe a range of antibiotics within the high-risk clinics, significantly reducing delays in treating infections, to improve outcomes.
Nicola enjoys working with her team and with the wider multidisciplinary team and has plans to develop services to provide more holistic care and early intervention for people at risk of or with active diabetic foot complications.
In her spare time Nicola enjoys exploring Wales with her three dogs, road trips through Europe with her family and reading whenever she can find the time!
