Allied Health Professionals are the third largest clinical workforce in healthcare and are vital part in delivering care to patients and the community.
This AHP day, we are celebrating the work and career of Dr Rebecca Nightingale, Honorary Consultant Respiratory Physiotherapist at Liverpool University Hospitals NHS FT (LUHFT) and Clinical Academic at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM).
As a teenager, Rebecca wanted to become a sport physiotherapist as she lived an active lifestyle. However, her career pathway led her to respiratory and acute physiotherapy.
Alongside her clinical and academic roles, Rebecca is also a Chief investigator (CI) on the Long COVID study, looking at breathlessness in patients who have suffered with the illness.
Rebecca said: “I have been a physiotherapist for 20 years and have completed a master of science in global health and a masters of Research.
“I have been fortunate to take physiotherapy all over the world, spending years working in Kenya, and going on multiple other trips to Malawi for my PhD.
“I love continuing my clinical role and was heavily involved in the delivery on CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) outside of critical care during the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, I am CI for a Long-COVID study, researching to see if a moving chest x-ray can help with further diagnosis and treatment.”
Dr Rebecca Nightingale in Kenya with her husband and two children.
The Long COVID study features a ground-breaking chest x-ray machine which allows for videos to be captured whilst the chest in moving. This is the only machine available in the UK and was the first installed in Europe.
LUHFT is encouraging all our AHP workforce to take part in Research. The Research Champions role offers different ways of taking part in research, focusing on key areas of the clinical research journey.
Rebecca continued: “It can be difficult if you are in busy department but there is something very rewarding about being to do work that might change a patient care pathway for the better.
“I am proud of being a member of the AHP workforce, I have been incredibly lucky to have supportive supervisors and an amazing team and that makes all the difference."
Rebecca had recently been awarded funding funds from Asthma and Lung UK to start a study that follows up Pulmonary Tuberculosis (TB).
Pulmonary TB a serious respiratory infection caused by bacteria that involves the lungs but may spread to other organs. Dr Nightingales’ research will look at patients who have finished their treatment for this disease.
