• Mrs Kayleigh Hizzett - Chair
• Mrs Claire Elwood - Incoming Chair
• Mrs Claire Maxim - Committee Member
• Mrs Jessica Cutri - Committee Member
• Miss Mili Patel - Committee Member
• Mrs Sarah Locker - Committee Member
• Mrs Faith Rishton - Committee Member
• Dr Ram Kasthuri - Executive Officer
• Mrs Nike Alesbury - BSIR CEO
• Ms Julie Ellison - BSIR Governance & Membership Director

 

BSIRNR Chair - Kayleigh Hackett

Kay Hizzett is an Assistant Professor at the University of Bradford. Prior to commencing employment at the University in 2015 she worked at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary within interventional radiology, cardiology and MRI and became an Advanced Practitioner within vascular access. Preceding to this Kay worked at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

She successfully completed her Masters in Medical Imaging in 2021 with her dissertation focussing on career decision making of undergraduate radiographers.

Kay has a strong passion for interventional radiology education, an area that is often forgotten both at undergraduate and postgraduate level of both radiographers and nurses.

Her research interests include career decision making, advanced practice and vascular access.

At home Kay lives with her husband, daughter and Cat. She has a love for shoes and leopard print.

She is thrilled to have become the Chair of the British Society of Interventional Radiology Nurses and Radiographers and looks forward to the future developments of the committee

BSIRNR Incoming Chair - Claire Elwood

I have been a Diagnostic radiographer for over 20 years. I qualified from the University of Hertfordshire and after a short time working in London; I have built my career with Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust.  I completed the NHS England Advanced Clinical Practitioner (ACP) e portfolio accreditation in October 2023 and work within Interventional Radiology (IR)  performing a number or examinations and procedures autonomously.

I enjoy working in a multidisciplinary environment and have always been drawn to theatre and fluoroscopy, so IR is a good combination! IR is a growing speciality within Radiology and the technological advances are creating exciting and innovative patient pathways that make a real difference. 

IR is often overlooked as a speciality within Radiology and I hope as a committee member to be able to support the committee in achieving their goals of promotion, education and networking at all levels.

Committee Member - Claire Maxim

After leaving my native Yorkshire in 1991 I qualified from the  University of Derby in 1994, and spent my first 3 years working in Derby. I then made the move to Leicester where I have now been for the past 2 years.  The majority of those years have been spent in IR, and  9 years the Clinical Lead Supt at University Hospitals of Leicester. This covers Leicester Royal Infirmary, Leicester General Hospital and The Glenfield Hospital. We are a large team – over 60- and perform a wide range of interventions and vascular access. We have extended roles in barium swallows. HSG, change of nephrostomy, vascular access and are planning much more.

I have always had a passion for IR ,and take every opportunity to promote the amazing work we all do. I think we are very much overlooked and undersell ourselves, so it is really important to showcase our work.

I love being part of a strong MDT and  making such a difference to patients’ treatments, prognosis and palliation.

I have completed a Pg Dip in Healthcare Studies and an MSc in Patient Safety and Quality Improvement. My studies bring together the aspects that are of the greatest importance to me. Patient safety is at the centre of all I do, and I have a keen interest in human factors and within the workplace. I think being able to think around the issues and challenges in this way give real scope for sustained improvement using the best evidence and research available.

In May 2024 I have taken on a new role as Quality, Safety and Improvement Lead for Imaging at University Hospitals of Leicester. This is an exciting new role with great opportunities to improve care and experience for patients and staff. I will continue to support the BSIR Nurses and radiographers committee as this is still very important to me.

Committee Member - Jessica Cutri

In 2009, I joined the team at University Hospitals of Leicester, following graduation from University of Hertfordshire. After 5 years as a general radiographer, I had the chance to join the IR department on a secondment. I soon came to realise that IR was the diverse workload that I was looking for and it quickly became my favourite modality.

Since then, I have gained 2 PG certs: 1 for Healthcare Leadership and 1 in Advanced Medical Imaging. The most recent of these was obtained in 2018 from Salford University, focusing on performing and reporting on barium swallows. However, I hope to expand my procedural skills by undertaking more examinations in the future.

By 2022, I was lucky enough to be granted the role of Practice Development Lead Radiographer for IR. This has allowed me to embrace my passion for teaching, by nurturing staff development plans and creating more learning opportunities for all members of the multidisciplinary IR team.

Being part of this committee has opened my eyes to the wider world of IR and provided me with the opportunity to network with other likeminded individuals. My hope is to continue the great work that our committee and extended IR members have achieved so far and promote our amazing modality to the radiographers and nurses of the future.

Committee Member - Mili Patel

Hello! I’m Mili, I qualified from Birmingham City University in 2019 and worked as a General Radiographer at Royal Stoke University Hospital for 18 months. 

My favourite aspects of radiography when working as a general radiographer were portables and theatres where I continuously got the opportunity to socialise and closely work in a multidisciplinary team with various staff members. This is was why a career in Interventional Radiography appealed to me.  

I started working as a specialist Radiographer at Royal Preston Hospital in early 2021, I was a band 5 when I started training and within 8 months when I was able to so solo on call’s got my band 6. 

When I first started training in IR, I was amazed at the difference these minimally invasive procedures made to patients and how much of a difference great teamwork made. It was definitely a struggle learning all the different type of kit, different procedures and different machines but once it all came together and started clicking, I felt so proud of myself. I’m still learning every single day! 

I knew of SIRNR as some of my nurse colleagues were on the committee, but it wasn’t until I attended my first BSIR event in 2022 that I felt the urge to join. I wanted to join SIRNR because in my short time as an IR radiographer I found whenever I told someone I worked in IR their response would be "What's that?" At BSIR I was so happy to meet the SIRNR committee members and share their passion to network, educate and promote IR.

Committee Member - Sarah Locker

My name is Sarah Locker and I work as an Advanced Clinical Practitioner (ACP) in Interventional Radiology (IR) at Royal Preston Hospital. I started my life in IR in 2006 straight from qualifying with a diploma in adult nursing, working at Royal Preston under Mary Donnelly, former SIRNR chair.

From the moment I started I fell in love with IR; you are surgical without being surgery, medical without being medicine, theatres, diagnostics, and everything in between. I just thrive on the variety from day-to-day cases to emergencies in the middle of the night; IR had me hooked.

In 2009 I completed my degree in nursing and became a specialist nurse in vascular access within the team, placing PICCs and tunnelled central lines. In 2012 an opportunity came for me to progress further doing more procedures to include port insertions and ultrasound guided ascitic drain insertions.

In 2016 I completed my Masters in Advanced Practice, including non-medical prescribing, which gave me the academic underpinning to fulfil my role as ACP and again to take on further roles. This time in pre-assessment which I developed into purely nurse-led service. I can consent for IR procedures, clinically examine, perform a thorough history taking and prescribe where necessary ensuring our IR patients are safe and fully prepared for their procedures.

I am excited to join SIRNR as a committee member and look forward to helping put IR nurses and radiographers on the map.

 

Committee Member - Faith Rishton 

Hello, my name is Faye (Faith) and I'm a nurse working in interventional radiology in Preston.

 I came across IR as a student nurse and found it to be so varied and interesting. So... of course, when a job came up, I applied and was lucky enough to be successful.

In my final year of nurse training covid struck and students were employed to boost work force, naturally, I requested to be deployed to IR... I loved every moment and I have never looked back since.

I qualified in August 2021 and my life as an IR nurse began, compared to other committee members, I'm still fairly new but IR still excites me as much now as it did then. I love how closely we work as a team with our radiographers, radiologists, Acps and support staff as well as the vascular surgical teams.

IR is often a little-known speciality but once you discover it, it is hard not to love it. I am looking forward to working with the committee to promote training and development and bring awareness of IR to the forefront and gain the recognition it deserves.