Avril Stewart

RGN, RSCN

Western General Hospital, Edinburgh

Avril trained as a RGN at North Lothian College of Nursing and Midwifery from 1978 to 1981 based in Edinburgh. She was a staff nurse in Medicine of the Elderly rehab, long term care and Orthopedic rehab and became the Ward Sister in rheumatology in 1988 at the Northern General Hospital in Edinburgh. The unit moved to the Western General Hospital in 1991 and she has moved around wards in the WGH since that time going from 30 inpatient beds down to 12 inpatient bed and a Day unit.

The unit covers the whole of Lothian around 750,000 population.

Avril has seen the introduction of Nurse Specialist and Practitioners in the Unit. She has seen medication go from ACTH injection and splinting to Biologics.

She is interested in all aspects of Rheumatology nursing and in developing her team of nurses in this area. Avril teaches on the Rheumatology Module based at Glasgow Caledonian University in Glasgow.