Optimising Respiratory Care in the Critically Ill Patient

Bogdan Ciovina

RBH AICU Practice Educator, Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust

Bogdan is a Lecturer-Practitioner and Adult Intensive Care Unit (AICU) Practice Development Nurse at Royal Brompton Hospital, combining clinical practice with academic teaching through the University of West London and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. With over 10 years of intensive care experience across neurological, renal, cardiothoracic, and trauma specialties, he has developed a strong interest in the rehabilitation of critically ill patients. 

As the Lead for the Critical Care Course at Guy’s and St Thomas’, Bogdan is passionate about supporting the development of healthcare professionals through education, mentorship, and evidence-based practice. Particularly aiming to bridge the gap between theory and practice, helping clinicians apply complex concepts to improve patient outcomes. 

Professor Keith Couper

Professor in Emergency and Critical Care, Warwick Clinical Trials Unit

Professor Keith Couper is a nurse and Professor in Emergency and Critical Care, based in the Emergency, Prehospital, Perioperative and Critical Care (EPPiC) research group at Warwick Clinical Trials Unit. Until recently, he also worked clinically in critical care outreach. Keith leads a programme of pre-hospital and critical care research, with a particular focus on respiratory falure and cardiac arrest. Keith was a co-investigator on the Recovery-RS trial during the COVID-19 pandemic and currently leads the Awake Prone trial. 

Nicki Credland

Nurse and Reader in Critical Care and Chair of BACCN

Nicki Credland is a Reader in Critical Care and Head of School at the University of Hull. She is a National Teaching Fellow and Chair of the British Association of Critical Care Nurses (BACCN). Her role is to provide vision, direction, leadership and to develop strategy. This involves strategic leadership at a national level, chairing the executive board and national board. She holds positions on the National Critical Care Leadership forum, UK Critical Care Nursing Alliance and the Adult Critical Care Clinical Reference Group and is a specialist advisor in critical care nursing to NHSE. Involved in national and international research and education for critical care nursing Nicki was appointed Director for Nurse Education at the NHS Nightingale Hospital Yorkshire and the Humber during the Covid pandemic.

: @Credland_nicki

Debbie Field

Consultant Nurse, Royal Brompton Hospital

I have been a nurse since 1979 and seen many changes within nursing and healthcare. However, the essence and fundamental principle of nursing in any specialty has not changed; this is compassion we give to the patients we care for.  At times it may go beneath the surface and get lost within the bureaucratic milieu, which is driven by protocols, evidence-based medicine, lack of imagination, nursing’s obsession for professionalism and our healthcare’s ‘risk adverse’ culture. Yet if compassion is valued it puts the patient back into the centre of care allowing all healthcare practitioners to help and support the patient through their journey towards enablement and a quality of life for them.

This is what drives my passion for caring for patients who have complex ventilation needs in both the hospital and community setting.

I am and have been consultant lead for the past 11 years for the home ventilation community outreach team within the Sleep and Ventilation service at the Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals’. Our aim is to meet the needs of a unique group of patients who either require weaning from prolonged ventilation in other critical care units or have long term complex ventilation and tracheostomy needs and require support and care in the community. Setting up and developing such a service depends upon collaboration between hospitals and community, building partnerships and proactive pathways between the two ensuring effective communication. Above all making the patient the centre of care and enabling them to live their lives.

Dr Robert Gatherer

Consultant in Intensive Care Medicine and Cardiac Anaesthesia, Royal Papworth Hospital

Rob is a Consultant in Intensive Care Medicine and Cardiac Anaesthesia at Royal Papworth Hospital and Co-Director of the ECMO service, he also works for the London Adult Critical Care Transfer Service (ACCESS), and is the current Chair of the ICS Research division.

His clinical expertise lies in Cardio-pulmonary shock, and he is deeply committed to research and improvement of approaches and pathways for care of patients with acute Respiratory and Cardiac failure.

Rob is the current chair of the UKECMO Network Education group, and an active researcher both in traditional clinical research and novel research methodologies re-focusing our efforts towards team development, practitioner-patient interaction and better integration of scientific knowledge into practice.

Rob hopes to help shape a professional advisory group that evolves our understanding of the role of the Consultant in the modern Intensive Care landscape, championing our professional identity as practical philosophers through research innovation, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, and elevating the intellectual and clinical standards of our field.

When not dashing about in the back of an ambulance or writing another grant proposal Rob most likes to be hanging out on the North Devon coast with his family, surfing, sailing or just mucking about on the beach.

Dr Matthew Gibbins

Consultant in ICM, ECMO and Anaesthesia , Bristol University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Dr Matthew Gibbins is a Consultant in Intensive Care Medicine, ECMO and Anaesthesia at Bristol University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. His specialist interests include advanced ventilation and monitoring of ventilation, point-of-care lung ultrasound, cardiogenic shock, and advanced cardiovascular support. 

Conflict of Interest: Lecturer for Hamilton Medical.

Rachel Jones

Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist, Grange University Hospital in Cwmbran

Rachel is the lead SLT for the Intensive Care unit at the Grange University Hospital in Cwmbran (South East Wales); which is a 24 bedded, general ICU.  She has previously worked in a tertiary centre with neurology and neurosurgical patients and a cardiac intensive care unit, as well as a long-term invasive ventilation unit.  She is passionate about using early FEES (Fibreoptic Endoscopic Evaluation of Swallowing) and supporting patients with tracheostomies to optimise their communication and wellbeing.

Thomas Lunn

Team Lead Physiotherapist for Critical Care and ECMO, University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust

Tom is the ECMO Lead Physiotherapist at Bristol Royal Infirmary, a 45 bedded critical care unit in a busy inner-city hospital. Their specialities are SARF, Surgery, Oncology and Cardiac Services. Prior to his current post, he worked at St. Thomas's Hospital in London as a critical care, cardiac and surgery team lead. He is very passionate about early mobilisation, ventilation and the management of SARF patients.

Dr Ema Swingwood OBE

Consultant Physiotherapist, University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust

Ema is a Consultant Therapist (Physiotherapist by background) in Critical Care at University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust. Her area of clinical expertise and interest is ventilation, weaning and complex airway clearance. 

Having completed the Advanced Cardiorespiratory Physiotherapy Msc programme at University College London (UCL) in 2012, Ema has continued her research focusing on the use of Mechanical Insufflation-Exsufflation (MI-E) and other cough augmentation strategies. Her current PhD work focuses on the use of MI-E in the intubated population which is funded through the NIHR Clinical Academic Research Fellowship pathway. 

Extra-curricular activities include contributions to the Undergraduate Physiotherapy programme at the University of the West of England, and post-graduate teachings at University College London and Brunel University. She sits on the Intensive Care Society Physiotherapy Professional Advisory Group and Education Committee, the Equity, Diversity and Belonging Committee of the CSP, and ICUsteps support group network. She has been part of the multi-professional authorship for BTS/ICS documents related to Respiratory Support Units and Weaning Centres. Most recently, she is part of the NHSElect working group for the development of a Critical Care Capability Framework.

: @emaroids1

Davide Tarello

Respiratory and Critical Care Physiotherapist, Niguarda Hospital, Milan

Davide Tarello is a Respiratory and Critical Care Physiotherapist at Niguarda Hospital in Milan, Italy. His clinical interests include mechanical ventilation, weaning and extubation, non-invasive respiratory support and airway clearance, with a particular focus on using lung and diaphragm ultrasound and ventilator-derived measurements to guide individualised care.

In 2026, he completed a European Respiratory Society Clinical Training Fellowship at University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust, focusing on advanced respiratory physiotherapy in critical care, including ECMO and electrical impedance tomography (EIT).

Alongside his clinical work, Davide is involved in clinical research projects in respiratory and critical care physiotherapy. He contributes to undergraduate and postgraduate university teaching and educational activities with ARIR, the Italian Association of Respiratory Physiotherapists. He enjoys helping colleagues translate respiratory physiology and research evidence into practical bedside assessment and tailored treatment.