Fourth nurse practitioner specialises in wound care.

New Zealand's fourth nurse practitioner (NP), Jenny Philips, has been working for the last two years as clinical nurse specialist (CNS), wound care, for MidCentral Health, covering both the community and hospital.

Philips emigrated from England with her husband six years ago, becoming programme manager of the BN programme at the then Taranaki Polytechnic. While there, she wrote three units on wound management which are still being taught. She has also completed a Masters of Arts (Nursing) at Massey University.

Philips qualified in 1969 at London's Guy Hospital and went on to gain the certificate in oncology at the Royal Marsden Hospital where she worked for two years. She has worked for the Royal Air Force as a surgical ward sister, took an aeromedical course and collected injured patients during the Falklands war, has worked in education in a Welsh hospital where she began specialising in wound care and was appointed a CNS in North Lincoln.

Becoming a NP means being able to remain in clinical practice and continue to make a difference to the quality of life of patients with chronic wounds, says Philips. She is presently working towards developing a suitable NP contract at MidCentral Health but admits it is taking some time. She looks forward to having greater autonomy in her practice and being able to provide more complete patient care, eg arranging patient admissions without needing to refer back to a GP and being able to refer people directly for treatment like venous or arterial investigations without their needing to see a surgeon. This means patients avoid the unnecessary and often lengthy delays of waiting for appointments with other specialists. Philips is also keen to become a prescriber. "Being able to prescribe antibiotics, topical agents and analgesics would mean I could provide much better patient care," she said.