Lesley Kennedy
RGN/RSCN, NMP, MSC Optimising Asthma Module, Dip Asthma, Dip Allergy.
Lesley works as a Paediatric Asthma/Allergy Nurse Specialist in the Northern Health and Social Care Trust (NHSCT) Northern Ireland and as part of her remit is responsible for setting up the Safe Asthma Discharge Pathway in the Causeway Hospital area. In the Northern Trust she also runs nurse led Asthma and Allergy clinics as part of the Safe Asthma Discharge Pathway, and is part of the multidisciplinary team involved in allergy clinics and oral food challenges.
In 1992, she was the first N. Ireland hospital based paediatric asthma nurse.
In her previous employment Lesley set up the Adolescent Asthma Service in the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children (RBHSC) and carried forward the Safe Asthma Discharge Pathway, winning awards at the Ulster Paediatric Society, Irish Thoracic Society and Northern Ireland Healthcare Awards.
In the RBHSC Lesley was part of the Difficult to Control Asthma team working at Tertiary Level. She also helped to set up the allergy service in RBHSC when it moved across from Immunology.
Regionally she is involved with the Northern Ireland Paediatric Respiratory and Allergy Network (NIPRAN).
Nationally Lesley is the Chairperson of the National Paediatric Respiratory and Allergy Nurses Group (NPRANG) she also sits on the executive committee of the British Paediatric Respiratory Society. Lesley is part of the British Allergy Education Network team who are working to update the allergy curriculum and competencies she is also a member of the British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
Lesley has been author and co-author of a variety of published papers.
Within education, Lesley is a Visiting Lecturer at QUB and Rotherham Respiratory; she is also regularly involved in the teaching of medical and nursing students within the NHSCT and has spoken at regional and national conferences.