ACP Executive Committee
Committed to Driving Excellence in Bladder & Bowel Care
The ACP Exec is made up of a multidisciplinary team of experienced Clinicians determined to improve standards of continence care nationally.
The ACP Exec is made up of a multidisciplinary team of experienced Clinicians determined to improve standards of continence care nationally.
I gained a BSc (Hons) in Nursing Studies from King’s College London in 2003. I started working in the field of women’s health, first as a staff nurse and then as a sister on a Gynaecology, breast care and early pregnancy ward.
Since 2007, I have been working in the Urogynaecology Department at King’s College Hospital and I am currently the lead nurse / nurse cystoscopist. I am actively involved in research and was awarded a PhD in Urogynaecology in 2019 investigating sexual function in women with overactive bladder. In 2019 I was also awarded RCN credentialing for advanced level nursing practice.
I have published extensively in peer reviewed journals and have written book chapters and contributed to National guidelines. As well as my clinical and research activities I provide advice to governmental bodies including NHS England. I am currently the Deputy Chair of the ACP, the past chair of the Nursing and Midwifery special interest group within IUGA, a member of the Nursing and Education committee for ICS.
Personally I have a great track record in service delivery which is patient centred with both measurable clinical outcomes but also with good / excellent levels of patient satisfaction, collected through local PROM-Patient Recorded Outcome Measures, PREMs-Patient Recorded Experience Measures and NHS Friends and Families Test data collections..
Suzanne Carney is an advanced physiotherapist in pelvic health and the owner of Anatomy Physiotherapy, a specialist clinic in Ireland offering expert care in continence, pelvic floor dysfunction, gut health, and postnatal rehabilitation.
She holds a BSc (Hons) in Biomedical Science and Information Technology from the National University of Ireland Galway (2002), a BSc (Hons) in Physiotherapy from Manchester Metropolitan University (2009), and an MSc in Clinical Physiotherapy (Continence and Women’s Health) from Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia (2017). Suzanne has also completed postgraduate certificates in Perinatal Mental Health, Continence Promotion, and Children’s Continence.
Suzanne currently serves as Chairperson of the Association of Continence Professionals (ACP) in Ireland and sits on both the UK & Ireland Executive Board and the Board of the International Organisation of Pelvic Health Physiotherapists. She is also a member of the Pelvic Health Committee of the Irish Society of Chartered Physiotherapists (ISCP), where she contributes to national policy development — most recently co-authoring the ISCP Pessary Guidelines.
Alongside her clinical work, Suzanne is deeply committed to education and professional development. She teaches a specialist course on prolapse assessment and management, regularly mentors colleagues, and provides student placements. She is also a sessional lecturer in undergraduate physiotherapy at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.
Suzanne is currently the only physiotherapist in Ireland providing training in manual therapy techniques for maternal lactation-related breast conditions and continues to advocate for interdisciplinary, evidence-based approaches to continence and pelvic health care.
I qualified as a nurse in 1992 and developed an interest and a passion for both continence promotion and nurse education early in my career whilst working in secondary care. My experiences sparked a desire to specialise in continence, and I joined the Nottingham Continence Advisory Service as Specialist Continence Advisor in 2001.
I began my continence career leading a project to introduce continence assessment and NHS product provision (with previously unheard of pad weighing) for nursing home residents. Since, many changes have occurred within the NHS and continence. I enjoy any opportunities to network, learn, develop, share, and improve practice and remain passionate about high quality bladder and bowel care and education.
My current role, whilst remaining mostly clinical with my own caseload of complex bladder and bowel patients, working closely with multidisciplinary team including secondary care Urology, Urogynae, Colorectal and Gastroenterology, also encompasses development and review of continence related policies, procedures, and patient information across our organisation, chairing our county wide / ICB continence formulary group, developing and delivering bladder and bowel continence training locally and leading on the professional development for our continence specialist team.
After completing my Masters in Research, I went on to qualify as an adult nurse from City University, London in 2013. Initially I worked on an older adult ward, specialising in dementia care, supported by many years of care support work in the community. After my first year of registration, I was keen to explore a role where I could combine my clinical knowledge with my research skills in academia to improve patient care; a job role as a clinical research nurse unified these.
In 2014 I started working in delivering clinical trials and in 2021, I was appointed Senior Research Nurse for the Urology Research team at North Bristol NHS Trust. I manage a portfolio of functional urology and urological cancer studies; my main role is to ensure the safe and effective delivery of these trials, providing patient opportunity and access to cutting-edge research, whilst also supporting projects focused on patient experience and cost saving in the NHS.
In addition to this, I am active in engaging clinical staff with research, increasing visibility of our work through various social media channels, collaborating with community care providers and championing staff to progress their skills through various funding streams offered by the NIHR. I have also contributed to nursing journals and trial protocol design.
I am passionate about nurses being leaders in high-quality research and utilising their transferable skills, supported by their clinical experience. Bridging the gap between clinical and research enables patients receiving healthcare to be active participators, something I am a keen advocate for, particularly around protected characteristics. My role in the ACP is to promote and share research in the urology and continence space, highlighting its key contribution to clinical practice and impact on delivering evidence-based care.
I qualified as an Adult nurse in 2008. Initially I was a staff nurse in gynaecology and worked on several wards until landing in urology- first as a staff nurse on a ward and then as a kidney stone nurse specialist before spending a couple of years as a deputy ward sister on a urology ward- during that time I completed urology specific modules at London Southbank University which is when I developed an interest in benign urological conditions and continence care.
I moved to Bristol in 2018 and had a brief hiatus as a colorectal clinical nurse specialist before moving back to urology in the role of functional/ mesh nurse practitioner in 2022
My role involves caring for patients with functional urological problems- such as incontinence, mesh complications, voiding dysfunction, bladder pain, urinary tract infections. One of my main areas of interest is the effects that ketamine has on the bladder and how this can be managed: I have given talks on this topic both in the UK and abroad.
I have an active role in developing guidelines, pathways and protocols. I am involved in research and audit in my role.
I am trained in flexible cystoscopy and the administration of intravesical botox.
I am currently completing my Masters in Advanced Nursing Practice at the University of the West of England.
Learning Disability and Autism Liaison Clinician
Qualifying as a learning disability nurse in 1991, I have supported and advocated for people with a learning disability since 1985.
My early career in the southeast of England was in community residential services where I managed services for adults with mental health diagnoses who had spent many years in institutional care, and younger adults with complex physical health needs in addition to their learning disability.
After moving to Somerset in 2001, I have worked in community teams, with my last substantive role as lead nurse for the learning disability service in North Somerset, working for Sirona Care and Health.
I am due to start a new role with Sirona, working as a learning disability and autism liaison clinician, based at Weston General Hospital.
My interest in constipation awareness and management for adults with a learning disability started about 12 years ago when it became apparent that constipation was an issue that significantly affected at least 70% of the people that I was working with.
Although recognised as preventable, or at least manageable, constipation was a condition present for many people with a learning disability whose deaths were premature and/or avoidable.
A small bid provided funding to start the ‘Poo Matters’ project locally (named after the 2019 NHS campaign). I worked alongside members of a self-advocacy organisation to raise awareness and deliver training, focusing on the issues faced by people with a learning disability, and the barriers to care. We worked flexibly and creatively to engage with adults with a learning disability and focused on exploring solutions to the barriers and practical changes to support in our carer training.
A highlIght of our work was presenting at the ACP conference in Bristol in 2022, where we received extremely positive feedback for quality and relevance.
As a result of this conference, I have written an article for the Nursing Times, and two articles for the ACP newsletter.
Our work has continued to make slow but steady progress, both locally and nationally and our introductory presentation is now used on the non-medical prescriber course for a local university.
I believe in working collaboratively with services and professional groups, to share best practice and reduce ‘reinventing the wheel’, taking the best of the best to standardise learning, improve the patient experience and, where possible incorporate research into work going forward.
As a lifelong learner, I am excited about the opportunity to develop my knowledge of wider continence issues and add value as a committee member.
I first became a community continence nurse in 2014 and have had a passion for promoting continence care ever since. My current role is the continence specialist nurse at East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust. Here I have set up, developed, and lead a trust wide continence service. The aim is to improve our patient’s continence while they are inpatients with us and provide continuity of care when they are discharged into the community. This led me to win the ACA award in memory of Dorothy Mandelstam and have an article published in the nursing times.
I qualified as a nurse in 2005, I have a BSc in Nursing from UEA, PGCert in Medical and Clinical Education from the university of Essex, and through the ACP, gained a post graduate module in ‘’ACA Continence- Demonstrating continence promotion through experiential learning’’, from the University of Ulster.
I believe education is at the heart of ours, and any continence service. Through being part of the ACP and keeping up with best practice I have been able provide regular study days throughout our trust.
By serving on the ACP committee, I would like to influence continence care in hospitals. Help to prevent patients from becoming incontinent, promote and improve continence and smooth the transition from hospital to the community with continuity of care and appropriate referrals. I find the ACP to be a valuable source of networking, education and championing best practice in continence care. One of my hopes for the future is to have an effective continence service in all NHS acute trusts, promoting and maintaining continence for all hospital patients.
I graduated as a nurse in 1994 and instantly fell in love with Urology – working on a regional Urology unit for 6 years I developed a strong interest in Male health, containment and management of LUTS, catheterisation and its care / management.
Following a move to Wales I worked commercially developing skills in containment and management of incontinence and CISC. Through this role I was able to work with many continence advisory teams in South Wales. It was this work that sparked my interest in Bladder & Bowel care.
I joined the Continence service in Cardiff in the early 2000’s which cemented my interested and developed my skills in bladder and bowel care. From Cardiff I moved to a neighbouring Health Board where I now lead the Bladder & Bowel Health Service for CTMUHB. The service is a fully integrated Nurse led service, working closely with Urology, Urogynae, Gynaecology, Secondary care, Primary care and the third-party sector.
10 years ago, I led a service redesign with the BBHS leading the community prescribing of all urinary catheters, CISC & urinary appliances – this ensures that the users have access to our knowledge and clinical advice – and is prudent in its nature, right nurse, right patient, right time – this also links to CTMUHB CAUTI huddle and our joint aim in reducing HCAI and unnecessary catheterisations. I remain passionate about improving bladder & bowel care, improving assessment/care through education, technology & policy.
I am an active member of the All-Wales Continence Forum (AWCF) where I will be leading work on policy in Wales with the CNO team and am assisting with the development of an All-Wales Bowel Care E Learning package. I am on the AWCF steering group for TWOC & the bowel care interest group. Our aim is equity in assessment, care and management of bladder & bowel care dysfunction in Wales.
Jane is an internationally recognised Continence and Pelvic Health Nurse Consultant with nearly 30 years’ experience across adult and paediatric care. She specialises in complex bladder, bowel and pelvic floor dysfunction, including incontinence, uro-gynaecological conditions, birth trauma, neurogenic bladder and bowel, chronic pelvic pain, catheter management, and post-surgical rehabilitation. Her expertise spans community, acute, subacute and end-of-life care, supporting individuals with neurological, congenital, disability-related and medically complex conditions. Jane is highly experienced in multidisciplinary assessment, treatment planning, education, policy and clinical governance. She has presented globally, contributed to national and international guidelines, and held leadership roles in specialist nursing, research and service development. Combining advanced clinical expertise with a compassionate, evidence-based approach, Jane is respected for improving patient outcomes, preventing avoidable harm, and delivering authoritative expert nursing opinion in both clinical and medico-legal settings.
I trained as a nurse at the Royal London Hospital, qualifying in 1991. Initially, I specialised in bowel dysfunction and stoma care, with a particular interest in supporting patients with psychological effect of stoma forming surgery. I have worked in a variety of clinical roles in London, North Wales, Malawi and Cumbria, all of which has brought new challenges, new opportunities, and enabled me to develop my knowledge and skills. Therefore, during my career I have been able to embrace change and enjoy the opportunity to learn and develop, striving to remain a reflective practitioner and improve my practice.
I took up clinical lead for the South Cumbria Continence Service 12 years ago, I particularly enjoy the opportunity to share practice and have developed bladder and bowel training courses locally as well as speaking at NW ACP branch, Bladder & Bowel UK symposium, Bladder & Bowel UK bowel interest group and other national study days.
I remain passionate about bladder and bowel function, and being a member of ACP has been extremely rewarding for my continued professional development as well as opportunities to network and share practice. I am particularly keen to drive forward a national standard for bladder and bowel assessment as a standard of practice.
I am married with 2 daughters, and I thoroughly enjoy living in the Lake District, and the outdoor lifestyle it brings.
As an experienced clinician, I thoroughly enjoy being Co-Chair of the ACP Executive committee and, contributing at a national level. It is an honour to represent the ACP membership.
Specialist Bladder and Bowel Nurse, University Hospital of Morecambe Bay
I qualified as an adult nurse in 2009 from the University of Lancaster with a BSc (Hons). During my career I have worked as a nurse in Renal, Orthopaedic Trauma and Elderly Medical.
My passion for the provision of high-quality bladder & bowel care has led me to my current role as a Specialist Bladder & Bowel nurse at the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay. I feel that being on the ACP executive committee allows me to bring current evidence-based practice to both roles.
My role as Honorary Secretary involves managing and co-ordinating clerical duties and administration issues of the association.
I feel lucky to be part of a high-profile team who equally share a passion for bladder and bowels and the provision of high-quality education and training for ACP members.
Co-opted: 2017 Elected: May 2018
Re-Elected: May 2021 Term ends: May 2024 (2nd term)
I have been a nurse for more than 30 years within a wide variety of specialities; this experience has developed me to the nurse specialist that I am today, currently I work as a Clinical Lead for a Bladder and Bowel Service in a community setting for a London Community Trust. My role allows me to pull together my previous knowledge, skills and experiences to provide services for patients who may require Continence, Urology, Uro-Gynaecology and Stoma Care for assessment, treatment, management, education and support. This is delivered in patient’s homes, care facilities or a hospital base in a clinic.
I work as part of a team that provides formal education to clinical colleagues in my organisation, social care, private care in Bowel Care, Catheterisation, Portable Bladder Scanning, and Continence Assessments, we also write the trusts Clinical Guidelines and Protocols.
Personally I have a great track record in service delivery which is patient centred with both measurable clinical outcomes but also with good / excellent levels of patient satisfaction, collected through local PROM-Patient Recorded Outcome Measures, PREMs-Patient Recorded Experience Measures and NHS Friends and Families Test data collections.
I remain passionate about the NHS and provision of care with dignity, sustainable services, which are efficient, cost effective.
I am a qualified nurse and have worked in the field of continence research since 2003. I am extremely passionate about improving patient care and my research falls into three distinct areas:
I am the chief investigator for a number of current studies exploring continence care provision in the community and inpatient settings, and am a co-applicant on a number of active and completed NIHR HTA trials. I firmly believe it is imperative for research to inform education and vice versa, and aim to integrate my research to increase the evidence base and improve continence care and patient outcomes. I have worked hard to position myself into a role in which I am able to influence this with my recent appointment to Associate Professor of Continence Care at UWE Bristol. I am exploring options to increase education for all – public and carers, undergraduate multidisciplinary professionals and continence specialists. My research also focusses on care across the patient journey and aims to particularly engender an ethos of continence promotion rather than containment.
I have been on the International Consultation on Incontinence committee for patient reported outcome assessment since 2004 and led the global ICIQ project for outcome assessment from 2004-2018. I am keen to reflect the needs of individuals with bladder and bowel symptoms and have developed a number of patient panels that have been invaluable to guiding research in this field. I have published and presented nationally and internationally to a range of scientific audiences.
There is a real enthusiasm to improve bladder and bowel care. I would be delighted to co-lead the ACP education committee to raise the profile of education in this fundamental area of patient care for all.
I trained as a physiotherapist in Middlesbrough in 1990. Subsequently I specialised in Women’s Health and completed a physiotherapy Post-Graduate Certificate in Professional Development and Continence. More recently I completed an MSc in Advanced Clinical Practice. Currently I work as clinical/professional lead for the Bladder and Bowel Care Service in Devon. My clinical work involves treating patients with a range of conditions, including urinary and faecal incontinence, constipation, pelvic organ prolapse and pelvic pain. As a physiotherapist, I offer modalities such as electrotherapy, biofeedback, exercise programmes and manual therapy, as well as independent non-medical prescribing.
In 2015 I joined ACP and became Chair of the South-West Branch. This involved working with the local committee to provide an educational forum and peer support network for those who have an interest in continence issues. We enjoyed great support from South-West members, and our meetings were entertaining and educational. In 2018 I joined the ACP Conference organising committee, which led to an interest in working with the Executive Committee. I co-opted onto this in 2018 and have since worked as Newsletter Editor and helped with the conference.
