Having transferred to Flinders University’s Caring Futures Institute last year, Professor Jeroen Hendriks compares Adelaide life favourably to his homeland, The Netherlands, as his innovative research work into integrated care for cardiac arrhythmias becomes the focus of a new outpatient clinic at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. And now he’s aiming to attract HDR students to increase his team.

What journey led you to this point in your career?

I trained as a nurse and did my PhD in the Netherlands, which looked at specialised outpatient service for people with atrial fibrillation, the most common type of heart arrhythmia, yet there were no clinics specifically for that. By 2007, I was involved in setting up these clinics with an integrated care approach, and I came to Australia in 2012 for a conference in Brisbane, invited by the Australian Cardiovascular Health and Rehabilitation Association (ACRA). At the same time, Professor Prash Sanders, a cardiologist from Adelaide, was looking at the risk factor management in atrial fibrillation, and suggested I come to Adelaide so we could work together. It meant that I initially moved to the University of Adelaide, but then I had the opportunity to apply for the role as Professor of Cardiovascular Nursing  – so now I hold a joint position between Flinders University and the Central Adelaide Local Health Network. It’s a clinical academic position and the aim is to generate research within the new outpatient clinic, which is called iCARE-AF (integrated CARE for patients with AF), but also within the clinic in collaborating with nurses, allied professionals and medical doctors supported by the knowledge and the skills of the university. Although my role will be mainly focused on the nursing profession –this is all about building bridges, so it is all about collaborating with a multi-disciplinary team, which is precisely what the Caring Futures Institute wants to achieve.

What does your work focus on?

The core of my research focus is on integrated care, which is an approach suitable to manage people with chronic conditions, such as atrial fibrillation. It involves four competencies: patients need to be actively involved in following up their treatment at home; it demands a multi-disciplinary approach to avoid missing important detail; it must provide comprehensive assessment and care that goes beyond the primary cardiac issue; and having technology to provide patients with ample support that guides them through the whole treatment process.

We are about to open a specialised clinic for outpatient service at RAH, iCARE-AF, built on the concept of integrated care for atrial fibrillation patients. It brings together my years of research in the Netherlands and in Adelaide into the international practice guidelines, and it’s now important to get this into public services, to improve the efficiency and outcomes of care. It gives a specific role for nurses and allied care professionals to contribute to this ongoing care process, by co-ordinating the care and working with the patient to engage with them and know what they need, especially to change their lifestyle. If you just say go home and make changes to your lifestyle, this would not work, so you really have to empower the patient to be involved. We have been developing a patient app to give them better education about their condition and treatment, and what should they do if they experience an episode of the arrhythmia – and we ask them to record and report on their daily exercise, diet, and if the patient has complaints, to learn how best to react to that. This is building a clinical database as we work with the patients, and it will be a very valuable learning tool.

In the first instance, the iCARE-AF Clinic will be a research setting, to show that this approach works in daily practice in Australia, and then the hope is to disseminate the concept to other hospitals in this state and around Australia, and also involve primary care services. After years of preparation and struggles, it is exciting that this is about to become reality.

What does a normal day look like for you?

Dividing my time between all these obligations and different sites will prove a challenge, and I don’t quite know how that will pan out. I expect to spend 50% of my time at Flinders, and 50% at the Hospital.

I also want to build interest in integrated care in the cardiovascular space, and I want to attract HDR students to increase this team. I am building the team at the moment and looking to attract more people with great ideas to this field of research – so hopefully interested people who are reading this will contact me. There is a lot more important research to do in this field.

What is something you are most proud of?

I’m especially proud of some of the important professional associations I’ve been involved with and the roles I’ve been able to play. In Europe, I was able to represent the nursing profession through the Association of Cardiovascular Nursing and Allied Professions (ACNAP) at meetings of the European Society of Cardiology, and was able to provide nursing input for the first time to a European task force to develop practise guidelines for atrial fibrillation in 2016 – and had my ideas about integrated care included. It was fantastic to be able to contribute on behalf of the nursing profession, underlining that the nurse has an important role in the care of atrial fibrillation patients.

What challenges have been posed by moving to Adelaide?

I initially said I would only come to Adelaide for one year, but I quickly became involved in so much activity around the research that I wasn’t ready to return to the Netherlands once that first year was up. I’d actually signed a four-year contract – and even when that time was up, there was more work to be done. Now, with this exciting new opportunity at Flinders, there is at least another five-year plan that lays ahead.

I like living in Adelaide – it’s easy to get around, and I can get on my bike and ride to the beach in 30 minutes. In the Netherlands, it takes me two hours by car and the beach is nowhere near as nice. And the beach is vital to me. It’s where I go for a walk to relax and clear my head, and it’s a source of inspiration for me. If I don’t see the beach for two weeks… well, I just need to go there. It’s necessary for me.