This month we introduce Occupational Therapy Expert Witness, Alexander Heaps, who became an...
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DipHE Adult Nursing, BSc (Hons) Community Nursing, PgCert Prescribing, MSc ANP
I qualified as a registered nurse in 2003, and my first staff nurse role was at Newham University Hospital in East London on a rotational programme. During this tenure, I served on a busy gynaecology ward, an acute admissions unit, and then in the accident and emergency department. I then advanced to a senior nurse position and was entrusted with coordinating the majors and resuscitation areas, performing triage, and providing guidance and mentorship to junior staff.
During this time, I was presented with the opportunity to serve as a project nurse for New Horizon Youth Centre, a homeless youth centre based in Kings Cross, London. This role involved delivering individual case management and client advocacy and developing a specialised service for vulnerable young people. Additionally, I established critical working relationships with external NHS agencies and secured priority referrals for service users.
In addition to the New Horizon Youth Centre role, I worked for the NHS staff bank as a nurse in sexual health clinics for Camden Primary Care Trust. My duties included conducting sexual health screening and treating patients for sexually transmitted infections.
After earning my specialist community public health degree from Kings College London University in 2007, I became registered as a school nurse. I later travelled to South America, where I dedicated my time to teaching English and sexual and reproductive education to children who were part of Colombia's internally displaced refugee population. During my time there, I also volunteered with a public health clinic in the Amazon rainforest for a month. Upon returning to the UK, I was fortunate enough to secure a senior school nurse position in Tower Hamlets. My responsibilities included overseeing a team of staff nurses, nursery nurses, and administrative assistants while managing a caseload of seven schools.
In 2012, I began training to become an advanced nurse practitioner and took on a locum position as the specialist school nurse for the Pupil Referral Units (PRU) in Tower Hamlets. I completed the postgraduate diploma in an advanced nurse practitioner program with merit in 2015. In 2018, I completed the dissertation module, which completed the master's degree in advanced practice. Over the past few years, I have continued consolidating my knowledge and skills as an advanced nurse practitioner in GP surgeries, Urgent and Emergency Care, Walk-in Centres, and Out of Hours services.
I accept instructions from both claimant and defendant solicitors and insurers. I have undergone formal training in the medico-legal process and am fully aware of my responsibilities under Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) pertaining to expert witnesses.