Susan Oliver Associates - Independent Rheumatology Nursing Specialists

This website has been developed by Susan Oliver to provide information for patients, healthcare professionals and those who have an interest in healthcare provision or consultancy work.

Susan is nurse consultant who ran her own clinics based in the community and in private practice since 2003. Since 2007 she has undertaken short term consultancy projects working alongside clinical teams to improve services. In recent years she has worked with Pennine Musculoskeletal Partnership, in Oldham to develop their rheumatology services and more recently with a new specialist community based rheumatology service in Preston.

The independent consultancy was establised in 2003 and Susan has developed a network of associate nurse experts. She has an interest in social enterprise and donated a significant proportion of her time to projects that set out to improve the standards of care for people with Susan has worked with patient and professional organisations and has participated in a number of projects.

Susan has been committed to raising awareness of the needs of patients and has actively participated in projects that

Susan Oliver presenting at an RCN conference

explore the true impact of chronic conditions such as those with inflammatory joint diseases (for example rheumatoid and osteoarthritis) and how to improve patient outcomes. She was joint chair of the Rheumatology Futures Project Group (RFPG) with Ailsa Bosworth (Chief Executive of the National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society, NRAS. www.nras.org.uk)

The Futures group commissioned a study undertaken by the Kings Fund and York Health Economics on the patient's experience of their care. This was combined with a study of healthcare professionals perceptions of the challenges they experienced in delivering high quality care. These two King’s Fund Reports were published in 2009. [report] [supporting evidence]

The King’s Fund Report was followed by a report by the National Audit Office on the services for Rheumatoid Arthritis [rheumatoid report) [national audit office]

The aims of this website are threefold:

A point of access for those seeking information on Susan Oliver Associates, their work and expertise
A resource for healthcare professionals who have little experience of arthritis and wish to gain some preliminary information and identify professionally endorsed websites.
Information for patients who wish to know more about arthritis or wish to review the details on this website before considering whether further advice or support is needed.

Susan received a Royal College of Nursing Fellowship Award in the Spring of 2009 for her contribution to rheumatology nursing. for further information please click here.