Members of Frimley Health’s respiratory teams were given a high profile at the national Association of Respiratory Nurse Specialists (ARNS) conference on 4 and 5 May.

Joanne King (Jo) was the recipient of the conference’s Respiratory Nurse Leader 2018 award, one of four award categories at the event held at the Hilton Hotel in Reading.

Jo said: “I was absolutely stunned when they announced my name as the winner. It’s a national conference attended by respiratory nursing and other respiratory specialists up and down the country, so to be recognised in this way by your peers is an honour and an incredible privilege.”

Nominations for the awards were reviewed by an independent panel and while Jo was aware she had been shortlisted, she did not know until the event itself that she had won.

Jo was presented with her award by Christine Ferhrenbach, founder chair of ARNS.

Jo has worked at the trust since 1996 in a variety of roles before deciding to specialise in respiratory nursing, taking on the role of respiratory clinical nurse specialist in 2008. She was promoted to her current nurse consultant role in 2016.

She is part of the adult integrated respiratory (AIR) team which was launched in 2016, a joint service with Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, based in the chest clinic at King Edward VII Hospital.

The work of four other Frimley Health respiratory nursing colleagues was also highlighted at the ARNS conference.

Nursing Times award winners, paediatric asthma clinical nurse specialists Emma Bushell and Rosie Reading, presented their work with the paediatric asthma bus, and Fiona Wyles, clinical nurse specialist for asthma, took part in a panel debate on asthma guidelines with fellow experts from across the country.

And respiratory nurse consultant Iain Wheatley was heralded the ‘poster spoken session winner’ for his presentation on non-invasive ventilation (NIV) and sleep.

The Association of Respiratory Nurse Specialists was established in 1997 as a nursing forum to champion the specialist respiratory nursing community, promote excellence in practice and influence respiratory health policy. ARNS also works to influence the direction of respiratory nursing care.