Janet Wootton - Deputy Clinical Nurse Specialist (Chair) Expand I’m a registered nurse and midwife and have worked for the NHS for 35 years. Working as a school health nurse enabled me to gain the relevant experience to become an enuresis specialist nurse. I was responsible for developing an integrated Paediatric Bowel & Bladder service for York NHS Trust. This service provides nurse-led clinics in York and the surrounding areas for children and young people with daytime and night time wetting, dysfunctional voiding and recurrent urinary tract infections and constipation. I have recently moved roles and now work as the Deputy Clinical Nurse Specialist – Paediatric Bladder Services at the Evelina Children’s Hospital in London (Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust). This is broadening my experience enormously due to the number and complexity of the issues faced on a daily basis. I enjoy singing, ballroom dancing, swimming and walking our dog Holly. My husband Chris and I have three grown up children and one grandchild.
Kate Blakeley - Consultant Paediatric Clinical Psychologist Expand I’m a consultant paediatric clinical psychologist and work with children and teenagers across a range of medical specialities but with a specific area of expertise in gastroenterology and related surgery. As well as working with individual children and teenagers and their families, I also liaise with schools and other agencies. This work has always been in a multidisciplinary context. My approach is holistic and I work from a variety of psychological models. I work at The Royal London Hospital for Children and live in North London.
Fiona Boorman - Paediatric Bladder & Bowel Specialist Nurse Expand I began my nursing career with two placements at Great Ormond Street Hospital (renal medicine and renal surgery) which sparked a lifelong interest in wee and poo and led to my role as a Clinical Nurse Specialist in paediatric bladder and bowel. Before nursing, I worked in special schools both day and residential, developing my interest in explaining bodily functions to those with challenging learning and behavioural needs. I am fortunate that my role as a trainer for ERIC enables me to inspire various professionals to improve facilitation of toilet training, particularly for children with additional needs. In my various roles I have observed that these children are often sidelined or toilet training is very much delayed (which reduces effectiveness) due to the lack of support, commitment, funding and training available. I hope that my role within the PAC will allow me to flag up the needs of these youngsters, whose voices are often unheard. When I am not talking about these topics, I can be found knitting bowels (see my Wee and Poo knitting patterns!), making paper mache poo, enjoying many crafts and meddling in the lives of my large family. I've also produced a series of videos designed to educate school staff about bladder and bowel health: read more and view the videos here.
Fiona Cameron - Community Paediatrician Expand I’m an Associate Specialist in Community Paediatrics in Scotland. My interest in continence care started with my partner's stories about how his family reacted when he wet the bed and continued when my children also wet. Working in community care I have been involved in developing and participating in all aspects of the provision of continence services across Lanarkshire. We have nurse-led enuresis clinics and are hoping to appoint specialist nursing posts but at the moment the specialist continence clinics are mine alone. As a community paediatrician, I specialise in autism spectrum disorder, learning disability and behavioural management, so I am comfortable with the more complex continence cases. I coordinate local clinical meetings and was a founder member of the Scottish Continence Interest Group. I have three mostly grown-up children, two cats, three chickens and, as of recently, one husband, whom I met at a bedwetting conference in Malaga.
Joanna Clothier - Consultant in Paediatric Nephrology & Bladder Disorders Expand I am a consultant in the Nephro-Urology department at the Evelina London Children’s Hospital. I have a full time clinical consultant post and currently spend 50% of my time in paediatric nephrology looking after children with chronic kidney disease before and after kidney transplantation. The rest of my time I work in the paediatric bladder service. I am actively involved in seeing paediatric bladder referrals from across the South East of England in the secondary/tertiary care clinic at the Evelina. I am skilled in the investigation of bladder conditions through both non-invasive and invasive urodynamics. I have experience in anatomical, neurological and functional urinary incontinence. I also look after over 200 children with Posterior Urethral Valve (PUV) in a combined specialist clinic with Paediatric Urology. I am actively involved in teaching and research in relation to bladder disorders.
Andrea Jordan - Lead Clinical Nurse Specialist Expand I have 21 years’ experience as a children’s nurse, having qualified in 1996. In 2002 I commenced as a specialist nurse and subsequently completed my degree and Master’s degree and qualified as a Children’s Advanced Nurse Practitioner and Non-Medical Prescriber. Working at Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge, my role as Lead Clinical Nurse Specialist within the Paediatric Surgery/Urology department includes the provision of care, teaching and advice to children, their families and to their care team members. The children I meet have a diverse range of underlying diagnoses and problems including those involving their bladder and urinary system and/or their bowel. My team and I work closely with a range of specialist colleagues including the Paediatric Surgeons/Urologists and gastroenterologists and community-based staff including paediatricians and nurses. We also provide our own specialist nurse clinics for children and perform nurse-led investigations to aid diagnosis and assess progress.
Barbara Steele - Community Paediatrician Expand I am Clinical Lead for the Community Continence Service at Sheffield Children's NHS Foundation Trust. This is the largest Community Continence Service in the UK. Our multidisciplinary team sees children with day and night wetting, constipation and soiling and delayed toilet training, including those with additional needs and where complex medical assessment is required. We value good links with GPs, Health Visitors, School Nurses, Gastroenterologists, Urologists, Neurodisability and CAMHS teams. I provide regular training on continence in children and young people for primary care clinicians and hospital paediatricians in and around Sheffield. Since I first started working in paediatric continence in 1998, I have found ERIC to be an excellent resource for professionals and families.
Alison Wardley - Community Nurse Expand I’m the team manager for children’s community nursing, including the children’s continence service, at Bedfordshire Community Health Services. My first nursing placement was on a specialist gastro surgical ward, so bowels were firmly set within the foundations of my career! I’ve worked in a variety of community children’s nursing roles for 20 years. Whilst undertaking my degree in 2011, I studied the benefit of community nurse-led bowel clinics and have since developed practice in our area. This has led to improved outcomes for children, teenagers and their families. I’m keen to promote early intervention and prevention by educating and supporting those who work with children to be aware of good practice in continence care. I’ve two teenage daughters, a dog and last but not least my husband, who have all learnt to tolerate toilet discussions as a normal part of family life!
Joanna Williams - Play Specialist Expand I live in Beddau, just outside LLantrisant, and work as a play leader in my local hospital, The Royal Glamorgan Hospital. I’ve worked on the ward for the past nine years. My role is to provide the children with distraction and play during their stay in hospital and help make their time on the ward less stressful. For the past year I’ve been involved with the constipation clinic, introducing play and coping techniques to help children who are admitted to the ward for clear-outs, and those dealing with constipation out in the community. I also rave about the help and resources that ERIC provide!