Amanda Biggs-Hume

Amanda has a colourful and impressive nursing background, studying and working in both New Zealand and England.

Registered as a nurse for more than 30 years, and a Nurse Practitioner for four years, she specialises in Emergency and Acute/Urgent Care Nursing.

Before this, for more than 10 years, Amanda dedicated herself to several roles within the Palmerston North Hospital Emergency Department including; Staff Nurse, Associate Charge Nurse, Clinical Nurse Specialist, Trauma Network Support Nurse, and Flight Nurse. She also spent some time in the recovery, anaesthetics and operating theatre as a Staff Nurse, following five years as a medic in the Royal New Zealand Army.

Amanda’s travel to England led her to a busy role as Staff Nurse at the Emergency Department at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge. During this time she was offered the opportunity to study and train in London with medical and nursing experts from the world-famous Royal London Hospital and Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) team as part of the London Air Ambulance, delivering advanced critical care to those in need in the field.

During this time, Amanda completed a BSc (Hons) in Trauma Care, with her dissertation written on ‘permissive hypotension’.

Amanda’s clinical and academic expertise in emergency care soon attracted a secondment to Mid Anglia General Practitioner Accident Service (MAGPAS) in Cambridgeshire where she worked as a Trauma Audit Coordinator & Research Assistant, helping the charity to develop their evidence based model of care, demonstrating the benefits of taking advanced critical care to patients in the field.

During this time, Amanda was handpicked to train and join their advanced medical team, where she had the unique privilege of working closely with Dr. Rod Mackenzie – a doctor who ended up running the response to the massive human catastrophe of the London bombings.

Amanda has presented at numerous live and virtual conferences both in the UK and NZ, and is an active member of a number of associations and organisations. For four years she was a committee member of the College of Emergency Nurses and is currently an executive committee member of Nurse Practitioner New Zealand, a part of the College of Nurses Aotearoa New Zealand.

She is also a member of the Ministry of Health’s New Zealand Medical Assistance Team (NZMAT) Pacific disaster relief team, as well as a new multi-disciplinary group called ‘One Health Aotearoa’ - an organisation that examines the problems of food safety, zoonotic diseases, and emerging pathogens.

Amanda continues to maintain a strong academic and professional interest in epidemiology and the role of the microbiome on human health, and how this will reshape how we deliver health care into the future.

Amanda lives with her husband and their two rescue dogs on their land in Palmerston North, growing as much of their food as possible. Interestingly, Amanda is an award-winning lever and pedal harp player and holds numerous national women’s archery records, titles, and championships, including gaining a world ranking of 91.

Amanda is excited about ACEhub and being part of a team providing ongoing education for all nurses - a subject she is very passionate about!