SHE has treated soldiers on the front line for 21 years as an army nurse, but now Vanessa Crossey is putting Devon service personnel in the front line of NHS thinking.

Vanessa has joined the Northern, Eastern and Western Devon Clinical Commissioning Group as Lead Practice Nurse – a new role which focuses on providing support and advice to commissioners on nursing issues.

Since joining the army in 1993, Vanessa has been posted all over Europe, including living aboard a ship for six months on a tour of Bosnia and delivering babies in an ambulance at the side of the road as a midwife at a remote base in Cyprus.

She has also been posted to Afghanistan, where she oversaw the running of a GP practice in Camp Bastion, which was responsible for 27,000 people.

“What people don’t realise is that soldiers have the same health needs as the rest of us and most of the people we saw at the practice had colds or minor conditions,” she said.

“But when people did have serious inju-ries we’d have to think carefully about how that would affect them in the future and what care they might need in the long-term.”

Vanessa hopes her experience in Afghan-istan will help her in her new role.

“As the Health Care Governance Officer at a huge military base I had to deal with difficult situations and negotiate with senior commanders to come up with health care strategies.

“I’m hoping to bring all the skills I learnt in the army to my role at the CCG.”