Aldons Chua, Endocrine Specialist Nurse on the Endocrine Investigation Suite at Eastbourne District General Hospital, has been made an honorary research fellow at City, University of London.
Aldons said, “It is such an honour to receive this appointment. The appointment will allow me to conduct the research project for which I recently received a grant award from the Society for Endocrinology.”
Aldons was awarded a Society Endocrine Nurse Grant of £4,950 last year, for his research project entitled, ‘What do patients with adrenal insufficiency say? Exploring patient experiences on using the current parenteral hydrocortisone injection device to manage adrenal crisis’.
He continued: “This research project will explore experiences on self/family administered parenteral hydrocortisone among patients with adrenal insufficiency to manage an adrenal crisis.”
Adrenal crisis is life-threatening and the emergency injection of hydrocortisone can save a patient’s life. Exploring the experiences of AI patients on their use of the current hydrocortisone device during an adrenal crisis will provide evidence of barriers associated with the use of the current parenteral hydrocortisone in preventing adrenal crisis and will inform the development of future interventions.
Aldons said: “My appointment as an honorary research fellow goes beyond the research grant, as we will be able to publish more research outcomes shared with the University. This will also give the endocrine department more privileges to take on future research projects that could support further improvement on the care of our patients.
“Massive thanks to my mentor and research supervisor, Dr Llahana, Senior Lecturer in Advanced Nursing Practice at City, University of London, for helping to make my appointment a reality, to Dr Umesh Dashora and Dr David Till, consultant endocrinologists at Eastbourne DGH and my local research supervisors, and to Maria Ravelo, Senior Endocrine Specialist Nurse, and the Diabetes and Endocrinology Team for their support.”