Vikki is the Lead Nurse for Critical Care Outreach at North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust, and a member of the North Middlesex Human Factors Faculty.
Her background has been in critical care for the past 29 years and she has held Matron posts in two Intensive Care Units in the North Central London region. She has been a visiting lecturer and assessor at Middlesex University, teaching Neurological skills and Physical assessment to nurses undertaking post basic specialist courses. She was awarded her MSc in Specialist Practice (Intensive Care Nursing) in 2002 and is the author of a chapter dedicated to neurological assessment in a textbook for nurses on High Dependency Nursing.
Vikki leads a team of 10 specialist nurses who run the Critical Care Outreach team. The service covers 24 hours responding to SBAR calls for deteriorating patients, leading the care for patients with artificial airways on the wards and provides the non-oncology vascular access service. There is a large teaching and audit aspect to the role and this covers all levels of staff, both medical and nursing, within the trust. Vikki leads the deteriorating patient work stream for the trust (the only nurse to undertake this role). The provides assurance to the trust regarding the use of the NEWS2 physiological scoring system and provides a root cause analysis following any in patient cardiac arrest.
Vikki became an Advanced Life Support Instructor in 2011 and now directs and teaches on many courses within the trust. It was during this time that Vikki developed a keen interest in the human
