A GRADUATE is helping to take the pressure of over-stretched accident and emergency departments by leading a revolutionary physiotherapy initiative.

Annalisa Newson completed an MSc in Advanced Practice Health and Social Care and credits the course with providing the skills and knowledge to introduce what will be a long lasting legacy for Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust.

For her pioneering initiative has brought physiotherapy to the frontline of emergency care, helping to take pressure off colleagues working within the A&E department.

Annalisa said: "Everything I’ve been able to achieve for the service here at Salford came from the Advanced Practitioner Masters programme and the framework it gave me."

Her work has led to recognition of the extended role physiotherapists can play in the UK’s A&E departments.

The hospital now has five advanced practitioner physiotherapists, operating seven days a week from the minor injuries unit.

As part of a team they offer holistic care for patients with musculo-skeletal injuries — with physiotherapists using their expertise in assessment, discharge and arranging care after leaving hospital.

The new service has seen a 60 per cent reduction in staff costs of treating patients with musculo-skeletal injuries from £46 a patient to £14.

Physiotherapists have also taken on new roles, such as managing wounds and interpreting x-rays.

Annalisa successfully completed her Advanced Practice MSc at the University of Bolton in 2011.

University of Bolton Senior lecturer, Sue First, is the Advanced Practice Learning Facilitator said: "The MSc in Advanced Practice is about maximising the student’s potential, extending their role beyond their base profession.

"The role of Advanced Practice Nurse is well known within the NHS but it is just as applicable to other health care professions — from podiatrists to physiotherapists, from pharmacists to paramedics.

"As a physiotherapist working in A&E, Annalisa wanted to go beyond her traditional role.

"So in tailoring her MSc programme we built in skills like stitching wounds, which is traditionally a nurse’s role, into Annalisa’s clinical competencies module.

"This means that now, when an A&E patient presents musculo-skeletal injuries but also a skin injury that needs stitching, which is very common, they can be treated by Annalisa alone.

"Now it’s a one-stop-shop whereas traditionally that patient would have been sent to see a nurse for stitching and would then have seen a physiotherapist separately."