7th May 2019
Asthma is the most common long term medical condition among children and young people in the UK with one million children receiving treatment for asthma.1
Having up to date asthma healthcare knowledge is therefore hugely important as it can be used in service provision to better support young people and children to manage their asthma condition.
Colette Datt is a Nurse Consultant and her clinical work focuses on Paediatric Asthma and Allergy. Colette worked as a children’s community nurse and an acute ward nurse with a background in high dependency and intensive care before becoming an asthma clinical nurse specialist.
She said “I felt I needed some theoretical knowledge to support me with developing in the CNS asthma nurse role. I was also keen to network and meet other asthma nurses.
“Upon completing my Asthma Level 5 course [Now known as Foundations of Managing Asthma Short Course] I gained expert knowledge, more confidence and competence to do my job. I learnt lots from other nurses on the course and got ideas of how to develop my service. The tutors were very knowledgeable and supportive.”
Professional development for your career
“My learning experience with Education for Health gave me a baseline to develop into a confident and competent asthma nurse. I was then encouraged to go on and study for an MSc in Allergy which I have done.
“It gave me the confidence to do the MSc and propelled me to become a specialist in my field and become a nurse consultant.”
Since studying with us on our Asthma Level 5 course, Colette has co-written books for younger children who have asthma, including ‘Monkey Has an Asthma Attack’, she won the research prize for her MSc dissertation and won the Nursing Times Nurse Leader of the year in 2018.
She has presented at local and National and European conferences on Asthma and led the Asthma friendly schools project in Islington which has just been published in the British Journal of School Nursing (March 2019)
“If you are an asthma nurse, this is an essential and very relevant course – I would encourage all asthma nurses should do this asthma course – it is a good standard for a general acute paediatric or community nurse – it will enhance their practice.”
Find out more about our Foundations of Managing Asthma Short Course.