Tell us a little about you.
My name is Fiona Meagher (pronounced Marr – like the chocolate bar). I live in Bath and stay in London during the working week. For the majority of my nursing career I have worked as a Health Visitor in a variety of inner city and rural locations in the South West of England and enjoyed working with child psychologists at a sleep clinic. It was also very rewarding to extend my role and work as a paediatric liaison Health Visitor between Bristol Hospitals and the Health Visiting Service to try to prevent paediatric hospital admissions. I am interested in infant nutrition and worked in the Marketing Department of Nutricia (an infant food manufacture) and developed training packages for Dieticians and Health Visitors. My previous experience in nutrition was beneficial during my time as a CNS (Specialist Cleft Lip and Palate Nurse for the South West).
In the last ten years I have been involved in a variety of roles outside the NHS - this involved providing care/advocacy for my father in law who had Alzheimer’s. I have a Masters in Fine Art and have been fortunate to collaborate with scientists at a variety of Universities in UK / USA and as a Research Fellow for the British Council. I recently completed the Return to Nursing Practice at UWE Bristol with clinical placements at the RUH Bath and was amazed at the number of admissions that with the right amount of support/education could have been prevented.
How do you see the role?
I am excited to join the team and busy coming up to speed meeting team members and understanding how the systems slot together. I think there is a large amount of health promotion work that can be achieved by working with families via home visits, in locality based clinics and through telephone consultations to prevent unnecessary visits to A&E. From my past experience I am aware that families need education that builds on their level of knowledge on constipation and eczema. Understandably parents, children, and young people may want a quick fix but it helps to develop an understanding of the factors that have contributed to the development of their child’s condition.
What is your hope for the CYPHP Programme?
My aim is to work with colleagues in nursing, mental health services, and pharmacy in a new dynamic way to deliver a program with the families that incorporates education, medication, routine and dietary advice to improve the health of the families in Lambeth.
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