Breege Skeffington

Clinical interests

Involved in the Aire trial and have been part of the GUSTO trials.

The most recent trial I have been involved with is the RELAX-AHF trial.

Professional profile

1990-1996 CCU St James Hospital Dublin- completed the ITU/CCU course affiliated to Trinity College Dublin

1996-1998 CCU Mayday Hospital Croydon

1998-1999 CCU St Thomas Hospital

1999-present CCU St Georges Hospital Tooting- completed BSc in Nursing Critical Care pathway

Having worked for over 25 years in a Coronary Care Environment both nationally and internationally, my experience embodies evidenced based practice from a historical perspective.

I have developed the unit at St Georges from a six-bedded unit managed by general medicine, to an eleven-bedded unit managed by Cardiologists.

I have lived through the transition from thrombolysis being the gold standard treatment for STEMIs to the introduction of Primary angioplasties.

I have seen the onset of earlier and more precise diagnosis of cardiac disease being introduced resulting in more throughput of cardiac patients.

Having also lived through the demographic change of an ever-aging population with multiple co-morbidities. I have seen a shift in non-surgical valve procedures e.g. Trans Aortic Valve Implantations (TAVIs) and valvoplasties.

Having previously worked in Dublin I had been sent on training to the Mater Hospital to lead on the seamless introduction of Intra-Aortic Balloon pumps to St James hospital.

This was an invaluable experience as I also helped introduce them at St Thomas CCU as well as St Georges CCU.

Electrophysiology, interventional cardiology, Heart failure, Inherited Cardiac Diseases, cardiology is now a generic term-gone are the days there was one cardiologist.

With all the above changes in the complexity of the everchanging cardiac patient I have developed care plans and pathways to enable the best evidenced care for the cardiac patient.

Care plans and pathways help provide a framework for learning for new and inexperienced staff.

I am involved in the teaching and training of the staff on CCU. I also teach on the cardiac modules at degree and masters level.

Keeping up to date with current evidenced based practices in an ongoing everchanging cardiac environment is a must in ensuring that patients get the best quality of care- this I believe permeates onto my staff.