[NV002] : Sue at St George's 1975-present


Awaiting Photograph Sue: St. George's 1975-present Click photo to read and listen to her story

Born in 1950 in the Maternity Unit on the top floor of St. George’s Hospital, Hyde Park Corner. From age of five, Sue wanted to be a nurse. Sue trained at the Royal Free. The history of the hospital attracted her because it was the first hospital to provide free care to the poor in that area of London.

After her son was born, she got a job as a part-time nurse for two nights a week at Kingston Hospital, as well as some agency work. Sue them became a Night Sister in the Intensive Care Unit of the Atkinson Morely Hospital. After becoming an experienced Sister on Intensive Care, she was able to work in the hospital.

It was a job she absolutely loved. Sue came out of clinical practice by accident. The Senior Nursing Officer(SNO) asked her to work for a year in the Nursing Office.

In the very early ‘90s, the Government decided that hospitals should be Trusts. St.George’s Hospital, then became the St George’s Group, which comprised AMH and the Bolingbrook. In 1992, Sue took a job at St. George’s working with the Chief Nurse, to be Senior Nurse in Research and Development (R&D). During that time, Sue did a Diploma in Surgical Nursing and a BSc in Health Sciences. She set up the first R & D strategy for nursing at St. George’s. After the hospital became a Trust, everything was split up into ‘Service Centres’. Every Service Centre had a Director of Nursing. In 1994, the Director of Nursing for Surgery and Clinical Support Services suddenly left and she was asked to act up into the role for six months. Then it became an appointment and Sue applied and got the post.

As Acting Head of Nursing, Sue’s current role is to ensure that St. George’s has have the strategies, policies and systems in place, to allow nursing to give a very high standard of patient care and to develop. She is responsible and accountable for standards of nursing care, pre-reg and post-reg education, for patient-public involvement, for clinical and corporate governance. She is part of the executive team that makes decisions about how the organisation is run. For that, she gives nursing advice although that is only a part of the team’s brief. She is also an ambassador for St. George’s Health Care outside and has to link with other teaching hospitals, in addition to S.W. London Strategic Health Authority and the S.W. (Educational) Workforce Confederation for development. Also the Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) who commission their services, as well as the Medical School and the University at Kingston

To read & listen to Sue's experiences whilst at St George's please click on Sue's Story