Meet Tanja Stankova, an Advanced Nurse Practitioner on GOSH’s highly specialised team
At Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) Advanced Nurse Practitioners (ANPs) play an important role in providing holistic and optimum care to patients and their families. They are part of the highly specialised teams of consultants, nurses, and allied health professionals whose dedicated work to deliver quality care continues to place GOSH at the forefront of specialist paediatric hospitals worldwide.
Tanja Stankova, an Advanced Nurse Practitioner at GOSH International and Private Care, recently showcased the role played by immunology ANPs in a presentation she delivered at the Immune Dysregulation Day, a highly specialised event which brought together GOSH consultants as well as experts from across Europe and the United States. Entitled ‘’The nursing role in the management of patients with immune dysregulation: challenges and opportunities’’, Tanja delved during her presentation into how she and other nurses help patients affected with Inborn Errors of Immunity (IEI) associated with immune dysregulation. These are a group of diseases resulting from immune-mediated pathology.
We were honoured to have had the opportunity to meet Tanja and learn more about her remarkable career journey, as well as the vital contributions she makes in her field:
Can you tell us a little about your journey to becoming an Advanced Nurse Practitioner, and what led you to specialise in immunology?
My journey started in the Blood Cells and Cancer (BCC) division some years ago as a newly qualified nurse. Through my professional career, I have always striven to expand the scope of my professional expertise and had a desire for deeper knowledge. I wanted a role which will incorporate advanced clinical skills with leadership, education and research and that was how I ended becoming an Advanced Nurse Practitioner (ANP).
You recently gave a speech on the Immune Dysregulation. Could you share the key messages you wanted to convey?
The key message was to share learning and highlight the role and responsibilities of a specialist nurse in the immunology field; especially when managing patients with immune dysregulation. I also wanted to share some of the challenges and opportunities we experience while supporting patients and their families.
How does the Immune Dysregulation Day benefit you and other nurses in your field? Tell us about its significance.
Immunology diseases are not just complex but also rare. Therefore, taking part in study days and conferences is all about gaining and sharing information, expertise and knowledge among participants and making optimal use of the opportunity to learn from one another.
Why is it important to highlight the role of Advanced Nurse Practitioners at events and study days like this?
Being the first ANP in the department of Immunology at GOSH allowed me to highlight to other professionals the scope of this role alongside the role of the Clinical Nurse Specialist and the impact these roles have on the patients and their families.
What is it like to work at GOSH as an Advanced Nurse Practitioner?
As I am new in this role, I am still in the process of settling in at the department. It is fortunate that the Advanced Nurse Practitioner role is well established in International and Private Care, and I am lucky to get the support of expert professionals around me.
How does your role differ from that of a traditional nurse, and what specialized skills do you bring to patient care?
The ANP role builds upon the traditional nursing role by combining advanced clinical skills with greater autonomy, diagnostic abilities and prescriptive authority.
Can you share a specific example where your expertise made a significant difference in a patient’s journey?
We support patients and their families continuously; striving for excellence and hoping to make a difference in the patient’s journey. The support we seek to provide varies from delivering necessary explanations concerning the diseases patients present with, partaking in the process of treatment, to more in-depth specialist education and training for novel treatments and symptoms recognition and management which families could need for caring for their children.
What do you find most rewarding about working as an advanced nurse practitioner in immunology?
Immunology is a complex and fast evolving field. Immunology patients have chronic or life-threatening conditions and as an ANP you play a crucial role in the patient pathway, improving their quality of life significantly.
How do you work with other healthcare professionals, such as doctors and specialists at GOSH, to ensure a holistic approach to patient care?
Immunology is a highly interdisciplinary field; allowing for working closely with a multi-faceted range of professionals. Close collaboration is not only needed but required to ensure holistic, patient-centred care is delivered.
Personalised medicine is transforming the treatment of immune-related disorders. How does your role support this shift, and what do you see as the future for advanced nurse practitioners in this area?
Immunology is at the forefront of medicine, with the field evolving rapidly with novel therapies offering new hope to patients. The scope of advanced nursing is also evolving, and we are looking forward to seeing what the future holds in this field and what advanced nurse practitioners can continue to contribute to patient care delivery.
