Looking for Advanced Neonatal Nurse Practitioner to join SAS

We are looking for an Advanced Neonatal Nurse Practitioner who will provide advanced clinical care to neonates and their families.

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Here is a profile on Yvonne Gibson Senior Advanced Neonatal Nurse Practitioner

1. What is your current job and how long have you been with the service?

I work as an Advanced Neonatal Nurse Practitioner (ANNP) in ScotSTAR Neonatal Transport and Retrieval Service. I have been with the SAS since the service moved over from territorial health boards in 2015 but had been working within Neonatal Transport and Retrieval since 2010 as a nurse. I relocated to Glasgow from Dundee in 2014 to train as an ANNP and complete my MSc in Advanced Neonatal Clinical Practice and have worked with ScotSTAR West ever since.

2. Describe what your job involves?

ScotSTAR aims to provide a national service for the safe and effective transport of some of the sickest babies, children and adults throughout Scotland and beyond for specialist care. The Neonatal team strives to provide equitable care to those who would be looked after in a neonatal intensive care unit during the entire transfer episode, and can comprise of paramedics, nurses, ANNPs, consultants and doctors as well as our amazing drivers and pilots.

I usually work alongside the Neonatal Transport Nurse to assess, stabilise, treat and move sick and premature infants safely to a Neonatal unit specific to their particular needs, using various methods of transport including road ambulances, fixed wing aircraft and both NHS and coastguard helicopters. We undertake a variety of transfers including emergency missions to remote and rural areas of Scotland where specialist neonatal care is limited, time critical cardiac and surgical retrievals to access specialists within Scotland and sometimes as far as Birmingham, Leeds and London, to more elective jobs which can involve planned admissions and repatriations of babies to hospitals and units closer to home for continuing or step-down neonatal care. Part of our role also involves providing support and training to remote and rural areas of Scotland including community midwifery units and teaching on organised resuscitation and stabilisation courses.

3. What has been your highlight?

I have had so many! Sometimes when I am flying over some beautiful scenery across Scotland, I feel incredibly lucky to be afforded such views and experiences, and sometimes can't believe I get paid for it! Flying past a sunny Ben Nevis in the Royal Navy Sea King is probably one experience I will never forget, especially as I'll never have that opportunity again given their retirement from service. Definitely something I never thought I would ever do or was even possible when I qualified as a nurse in 2004. Achieving my MSc has been my biggest achievement, and I am so fortunate to be able to do the job I love in an ever-changing environment and meet so many different people.