Specialist nurse seeks to address knowledge gaps in ENT

Source: Natasha Lucas

A specialist ear, nose and throat (ENT) nurse has said there is a “gap” in training for her specialism, ahead of a conference she is running to address it.

Otorhinolaryngology, or ENT, deals with diseases and conditions of the ear, nose and throat and, specialist nurse Natasha Lucas said, is an underserved discipline when it comes to continued professional development (CPD).

"In our specialism, we also don’t have a high turnover of staff, it’s something the nurses like doing”

Natasha Lucas

Mr Lucas, who is running a new nurse-specific ENT conference, said nurses often felt unprepared for ENT patients.

“In our department, we have about seven or eight ENT nurses,” said Ms Lucas, who works for University Hospitals Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust.

“Everything is fine until patients come into the hospital in certain wards without specialists, and they’re unused to seeing them.

“On those wards, when they get a patient who needs a tracheostomy everyone is a bit on edge because they don’t know too much or don’t understand them. But they’re actually quite easy patients to deal with once you have the knowledge.”

After noticing this pattern in her own trust, Ms Lucas suggested using some of the CPD budget on ENT training for nurses – but struggled to find any.

She said: “When I searched for training or conferences, there’s a lot of ENT training for doctors – different courses or events they can go to.

“But when you search for nurses, there’s the odd course to do with ENT which we do, but nothing more about the general speciality, the throat conditions, viral conditions.

“Nothing for nurses to increase their knowledge or skills.”

Ms Lucas set up a small-scale event at the start of 2023 dedicated to ENT, using specialist nurses and doctors in the field to deliver the training.

She recalled that feedback from the event suggested there were further knowledge gaps for nurses about laryngectomies – the partial or complete removal of the larynx – and tracheostomies – a surgically-created hole in the windpipe to support breathing.

Now, she is holding another conference on 16 November at Royal Derby Hospital specifically to train nurses – both specialists and general ward staff – in those two procedures.

Poster advertising laryngectomy and tracheostomy conference in Derby

“This is a first for our trust, at least,” said Ms Lucas.

“My manager told me it’s not something they come across often and that they’re few and far between.

“The morning will go over the theory: anatomy, what happens for patients when they get diagnosed, survivorship, what happens in an emergency, how to manage airways. Then the afternoon will be a breakout to look at the tubes we use, resuscitation skills.”

Ms Lucas has been in ENT since 2019, having worked in endoscopy previously.

She said the specialism was sometimes “written off” or ignored.

“But there are all these intricate conditions," Ms Lucas added.

"We deal with speech and language because of the patients they look after. We engage with audiology too.

"It’s very varied work, not just the same thing – there’s always something weird and wonderful, or a new case that’s really interesting.

“There’s so much to teach and to learn, and we try and teach our patients as we go along, as well. In our specialism, we also don’t have a high turnover of staff, it’s something the nurses like doing.”