Cardiovascular Nurses
About
Jo Wickham and Rebecca Eddington represent nurse members on the New Zealand Committee.
Jo and Rebecca will partner with cardiovascular nurses in centers around the country to deliver training days. Cardiac Nursing Education (CNE) days aim to update and up-skill nurses working in primary or secondary cardiovascular care settings. Check out the feedback here from a CNE day in Christchurch. It was very well received!
During the year, national representatives and local nurses work with the Annual Scientific Meeting organising committee to prepare for symposiums and business meetings at the ASM.
To find out more or to get involved, contact Jo or Rebecca through the NZ office.
Recently, some educational videos for nurses were made available through the Members’ Education site managed by the Australian office and the CSANZ Education Committee.
Alternatively, please access them on Vimeo here:
CVN-NZ Aortic stenosis presented by Prof Ralph Stewart – https://vimeo.com/768413726/9c2ec23f19
Rheumatic Fever & Rheumatic Heart Disease presented by Mary-Anne Ross – https://vimeo.com/768800627/bc858f6d7b
Long QT and Brugada Syndrome presented by Jenna Keepa – https://vimeo.com/768807295/5c1537d307
Acute Chest Pain Evaluation presented by Dr Niels van Pelt – https://vimeo.com/764005206/de66cbcb52
Nurse Practitioners
Meet our members who are cardiovascular Nurse Practitioners.
Jo Wickham
I have been working in Cardiology since 1995, first in CCU and cardiology procedures at North Shore Hospital and then as a Cardiology Nurse Specialist doing clinics at North Shore and Waitakere hospitals from 2000. After becoming a CNS and 17 years of hard work and study I gained my Master’s degree in 2016 and Nurse Practitioner certification in April 2017. I currently work for Waitemata DHB over both the North Shore and Waitakere sites doing General Cardiology Clinics which is fantastic as I see patients with all cardiac conditions. I am also mentoring CNS’s for their Master’s projects and RN prescribing practicums.
Andy McLachlan
Andy is the team leader of the cardiac nursing team at Middlemore Hospital. He runs clinics seeing patients with a wide range of cardiac issues including heart failure.
Julie Chirnside
I have been a cardiology nurse since 1995 with 15 years in Christchurch Hospital’s Coronary Care Unit as a staff nurse then charge nurse manager. I have always had a strong interest in heart failure, stemming from my encounters with patients in the Coronary Care Unit who were acutely unwell, and what the long-term consequences would be for those patients and their families. I obtained a Clinical Master of Health Science in 2013 through the University of Otago, and qualified as a Nurse Practitioner in 2018.
I teach on the University of Otago post-graduate and Masters nursing papers for health assessment and pharmacology. These days my interest is in improving palliative care for those with advanced heart failure in Canterbury.
Jane Hannah
I am a Nurse Practitioner working in the Adult Congenital Heart Disease service in Auckland. I started my cardiac career at Green Lane Hospital working across Cardiology and Cardiothoracic. I particularly enjoyed Intensive Care specialising in babies and young children post cardiac surgery. I then moved to Mercy Ascot Hospital for ten years running their ICU and Cardiac ward. In 2007 I came back to Auckland City Hospital to work with the Heart Failure service as a Nurse Specialist. Whilst there I completed my Masters and was supported by the team to become a Nurse Practitioner. In 2017, I joined the ACHD team. We are a National service and liaise with other Cardiac teams throughout NZ.
Tracy Low
I qualified as a Nurse Practitioner in June 2020 and commenced a new role as one of the first Cardiology Nurse Practitioners for Hauora Tairāwhiti, October 2020, which encompasses long term health management. Scope for this role includes first specialist and follow-up appointments within the cardiology specialty. My mentors are Associate Professor Dr G Devlin and Dr T Roberts, both Consultant Cardiologists. Current membership includes: NP representative Midland Cardiac clinical network steering group, NPNZ and CSANZ.
Jo Downie
I have been working as a Nurse Practitioner in Cardiology for 8 years, after completing my Masters in 2011, and doing a two year internship before becoming an NP. Prior to this I nursed for many years within Cardiothoracic Intensive Care and Coronary care units, and managed the Cardiac Catheter Lab at Taranaki District Health Board (TDHB) for 10 years.
I currently work in TDHB Cardiology Suite seeing a range of patients with cardiac conditions except heart failure. I run a nurse led elective cardioversion service which includes seeing patients pre and post DCCV and performing the DCCV with an anaesthetist.
I was the CSANZ Affiliate Nurse Rep from 2012-2019.
Brigitte Lindsay
RN training UK Reading. Qualified 1988. Masters Nursing 1st class honours 2005 Massey University. NP since 2007. Now I run the Heart failure service across Taranaki 0.6 FTE , work for South Taranaki Rural GP practice providing general primary care across the lifespan 0.3FTE and and have my own private General Cardiology practice.
Renee McEwing
Renee McEwing is a Nurse Practitioner in Cardiology at Counties Manukau Health and runs a range of outpatient clinics for a variety of cardiac conditions. She completed her Masters in 2016 and her NP intern year in 2022. Other aspects of her role include Cardiac Rehabilitation education in the inpatient and community settings, leading supported exercise clinics and programmes with allied health colleagues. Her background is in Coronary Care Nursing where she worked at ADHB for 6 years prior to her current role.
Daman Kaur
Daman Kaur is a Nurse Practitioner in Cardiology at Te Whatu Ora Hawkes Bay and runs a range of outpatient clinics for a variety of cardiac conditions. Daman has set up cardiology outreach clinics in rural remote regions in Hawkes Bay and has won Inaugral CSANZ cardiac innovation award for her work in that space. Daman has worked in Cardiology since 2011 in Coronary care unit and community cardiology. Her interest areas are Preventative Cardiology, Heart failure, role of exercise/rehabilitation in cardiac conditions and Community cardiology (focussing on access and equity). Daman and her team in Hawkes Bay has set up first combined HF & Pulmonary rehab programme which is running successfully in the region for foreseen future.
Biographical information for Nurse Co-Rep Rebecca Eddington
Rebecca is a clinical nurse specialist (CNS) at Nelson Marlborough Hospital in New Zealand. She is a member of the CSANZ nursing executive council, the Indigenous Council and Te Rūnanga o Aotearoa.
Rebecca recently co-authored “Cardiovascular Nursing and Climate Change: A Call to Action From the CSANZ Cardiovascular Nursing Council” published in Heart Lung Circulation (2022) which provides key considerations for cardiovascular nursing related to climate and environmental impacts on health, healthcare access and delivery. She has a special interest in cardio geriatrics with her masters focusing on this subject. She is known for her work in geriatric risk assessment and patient centred care. Rebecca won the New Zealand CSANZ Nurse Investigator award 2021 for her nurse led clinic trial which demonstrated a significant reduction in echo waitlists by determining patients’ goals of care and assessing frailty. She also won the NMDHB Health Innovation Award for her work on “Putting the informed back in informed consent, older adult risk assessment in cardiology prior to valve replacement”.