FALLS AWARENESS WEEK

Madeleine Gifford
Band 6 Physiotherapist, The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS FT

Madeleine is a Specialist Neuro-physiotherapist at The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS FT. Madeleine qualified in 2021 and took an interest in Stroke and neurological rehab immediately. During her time on the Stroke Unit and Hillingdon Hospital Madeleine started a quality improvement project looking at falls. This then sparked a passion for falls prevention and Madeleine has been a driving force in a number of successful new initiatives targeting falls prevention.

Julie Windsor
MSc RGN, Patient Safety Clinical Lead Medical Specialties/Older People, NHS England

Julie is a Member of National Patient Safety Advisory Panel and a Collaborator on the National Audit of Inpatient Falls (NAIF). She is also a Member of the National Falls Prevention Coordination Group and a Clinical advisor for both NICE CG 161 & QS 86 (falls) and the WHO Falls Prevention Technical Package. In addition, Julie is a NIHR reviewer on falls related studies and a collaborator/advisor for numerous medium/large scale falls related research studies and QI programmes relating to falls and fracture prevention in care settings.

Dr Julie Whitney
National Audit of Inpatient Falls clinical lead, Royal College of Physicians (RCP)

Julie Whitney is a lecturer in the Academic Department of Physiotherapy at King’s College London and a consultant practitioner at King’s College Hospital. Clinically, she is involved in assessment of older people presenting to the emergency department as part of the “frailty pathway”. Her research interests include fall risk assessment, the effects of ageing and associated conditions on mobility as well as evaluating physical activity and exercise interventions. She teaches on the BSc and MSc physiotherapy courses at King’s College London. She is also the clinical lead for the National Audit of Inpatient Falls and the South London CRN lead for Ageing.

Shona MacKinnon
Hospital Falls Co-coordinator, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHS GGC)

Shona is a qualified nurse of 23 years, started nursing career in an acute surgical unit covering a variety of surgical specialities, moving forward to specialise in elective orthopaedic surgical wards for 10 years. Here, she used an enhanced recovery approach to promote early mobilisation in the post op patient. She then became a ward sister of a multi-surgical specialist unit before taking up the Hospital Falls Coordinator post at NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde nearly four years ago. Patient safety has always been a forefront with safe footwear, correct bed heights and post fall management being a profound passion. Outside of work, she likes to take her own risks by climbing Scottish mountains and likes to relax in her ‘home town’ of the Outer Hebrides.

Tara Marshall
RN MA Pt Safety, Director at These Hands Academy

After 25 years working in the NHS as an intensive care nurse, Tara has found her home in patient safety. After completing her training, she spent most of her nursing development at Guys and St Thomas’s teaching hospital in London, whilst there, she studied for a Master of Arts in Patient Safety Management at Loughborough University, focusing on human behavior and culture change. On moving back to the Midlands Tara then influenced the design of a digital observation system which was deployed across a large NHS Trust in the Midlands.

In 2019 Tara was invited to take a role as Deterioration Clinical Lead for the Eastern Patient Safety Collaborative, adding quality improvement and program management to her skill set, she now is supporting health and social care systems to undertake system wide quality improvement programs through her own consultancy.

Outside of work you will find her splitting her time between the outdoors and the arts, she immerses herself in theatre shows that challenge the norm exploring different genres including those that push the boundaries between entertainment and creative learning.

To fully relax, you will find her at sea; sailing has been a lifelong passion and one that has taken her to many places around the UK and Europe.