North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust welcomes new Sepsis Nurses
They have already started working with 'Sepsis Champions' from all departments
Last updated 15th Sep 2021
There are two new Sepsis Nurses at North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust.
The first, Becca, has said there is "so much" they want to do, such as "improving pathways, educating all staff to recognise the early signs of Sepsis and how to provide rapid, initial treatment known as the Sepsis six, as well as ongoing care for these patients".
She said they have already started this by working with 'Sepsis Champions' from all departments across the Trust.
Meanwhile Sim said they are "keen to create clear guidance and communicate with staff to try and make positive changes, whilst making them aware that, even though there are only two of us, we want to support our staff as much as possible, ultimately, improving patient’s safety and experience in our Trust".
Becca said she originally trained as a student at Peterborough City Hospital (PCH) and then started her career in the Intensive Therapy Unit (ITU) there, where she stayed for four years:
"I then started working as a Critical Care Outreach Nurse for 3 years at Leicester, Hinchingbrooke and PCH.
"I did my dissertation on Sepsis at university, so I have always had a keen interest in it, but when I worked in ITU I would see many patients coming in with sepsis and saw how quickly these patients deteriorated.
"I remember one patient in particular from my time at Leicester because she was the same age as me at the time, just 25, and I had to speak to the family when she deteriorated and passed away.
"It was an experience that will always stay with me."
Sim completed a Nursing degree in 2013 in Portugal and came to the UK in 2014, to Burton-Upon-Trent:
"I started working in a General Female Surgical Ward and then an Acute Female Surgical Ward, having to provide care to both surgical and medical ITU stepdown patients, and finally moved into ITU.
"I moved to ITU in PCH in 2016 and then worked as a Recovery Nurse in Main Recovery-Theatres, which is where I have worked for the last 5 years.
"I became a Sepsis Champion in 2017, making me want to know more and more about Sepsis, because it isn't a syndrome that is easy to diagnose.
"There are no tests and no swabs, meaning you have to work on a thorough assessment.
"It was a relatively new defined syndrome when I first started, so it was very important to make sure that everyone was aware that the definition had changed, meaning that the way we were assessing and managing our patients, wasn’t up to date anymore.
"Working alongside the Sepsis Team and my department, we came up with different ways to make teaching enjoyable, and most importantly, to get the message across that talking about Sepsis is important.
"When the opportunity came for me to try and recreate the same changes to our Trust and to continue the hard work of the previous team, I did not hesitate."