Advocacy spotlight series: Prof. Donna Fitzsimons

In this month’s HeartBeat, Shirley Ingram Advanced Nurse Practitioner and ACNAP Advocacy Committee member, chats to Donna Fitzsimons, Professor at the School of Nursing, Queens University Belfast, about her career, the establishment of the ESC Patient Form, professional courage and her commitment to improving the quality of patient experience and care. Can you give me a brief overview of your career as a nurse, where did it all start for you? Thank you for this opportunity. Genuinely, I really am delighted to be back speaking to ACNAP members. I applied for nursing from school, I was turned down from the traditional nursing route but was accepted onto the degree programme. It was one of the initial degree programmes on the island of Ireland a few decades ago now! I think I was destined for cardiology nursing. There’s a strong family history of cardiovascular disease and in fact, as I was filling in my application for the traditional nursing entry programme, my uncle passed away from cardiovascular disease in the bedroom next to mine, so I’ve experienced first hand the devastating impact of cardiovascular disease on people’s lives. When I graduated and got my first post at a small local hospital I was asked to work in the coronary care unit, a really busy nine bedded unit with a step-down area and I loved it. It was in the days of Streptokinase and the thrombolytic trials!.