Helen leads the team of specialist nurses at the Royal Free Hospital where she has been working in the Scleroderma Unit since 1992. When she started in 1992 she was the only specialist nurse and has gradually built the team up over the years.
A significant amount of Helen's time is spent organising the new trials which are continually taking place within the unit. While Jane, the research nurse, is responsible for the day-to-day running of the trial once it has started, it is Helen's role to coordinate the setting up of new trials. This can mean that she spends a lot of time in meetings discussing facts and figures, however specialist nursing expertise is invaluable in helping to set up clinical trials and Helen's role is to ensure that the patient is fully informed, written information is comprehensible and ethical issues are addressed. Funding from such studies enables us to do more research and provides patients with facilities and services which would not normally be available.
Due to the amount of meetings Helen has to attend it is therefore a pleasure to her to be able to run her own nurse-led Raynaud's clinic. Raynaud's Phenomenon is a common benign condition within the general population but the most critical element in the diagnosis and management of Raynaud's, is to identify whether it is primary or secondary to a connective tissue disease - usually Scleroderma. For this reason, when a new patient is referred we bring them up to our pre-screening clinic (as long as they don't live too far away). Our clinical scientist Kevin Howell performs two special tests - nailfold capillaroscopy to look for abnormal capillaries (a potential sign of a connective tissue disease) and thermography (to look at how quickly the hands rewarm) and the patient is then sent for blood tests - most importantly an auto-antibody screen. They will then be given an appointment within the next few weeks for Helen's clinic. At the clinic visit Helen takes a full medical history and then runs through a series of specific questions aimed at weeding out any signs or symptoms of a connective tissue disease. As she will have already seen the test results a diagnosis can usually be given on that day. Time is spent in each session on education and treatment.
Helen is also in much demand as a speaker and gives lectures to doctors, nurses and patients around the country at conferences and study days.
Helen Wilson - Clinical Nurse Specialist
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