| 20 November 2019
“I cannot do all the good that the world needs. But the world needs all the good that I can do.” – Jana Stanfield
We’ve been lucky enough to have Sarah Connelly on our team since 2015 and we believe she’s a force for good. Please take a few minutes from your day to discover a little bit more about Sarah and why we’re lucky to have her expertise on board.
- What experiences led you to work for WD Trust?
I qualified as a Registered General Nurse RGN in 1985, having done my training at The Royal Free Hospital in London. I then spent several years gaining different experiences, A&E, Gastroenterology and General surgery, I last worked clinically as a Surgical Ward Sister specialising in Vascular, breast and Urological surgery in Barnstaple in Devon. In 1997 I moved back to London and whilst looking for permanent work, saw a job advertised looking for Healthcare workers with management experience to work for the North Thames Task Force on Junior Doctors Hours, this then became part of the London Regional Action. We were tasked with improving doctors working lives and helping Trusts reduce their hours, so I became an expert on Rostering and the rules governing doctors’ hours. After various reconfigurations, I became Head of Medical Workforce at North Central London Strategic Health Authority until it was disbanded in 2007. I then worked until 2014 at Great Ormond Street Hospital as their EWTD and New Deal lead. As part of The Regional Action team, we developed DRS so it was really good to come back to it in 2015 when I started with Skills for Health.
- What does an average day look like for you?
My days vary depending on whether I am on-site with a customer, where I could be demonstrating our Rostering product usually with one of our RDs, or providing training on our software for our users, or I could be discussing what a Trust needs to move forward, alternatively, I could be providing bespoke training on Doctors hours and Terms and Conditions as part of our consultancy service. When not on site I am home-based, and this usually means catching up on the admin and preparing for future visits and providing external support to our customers.
- What do you enjoy most about your job?
Making a difference, it’s great to help a customer implement our Rostering system and see what a difference it can make to them and how it can help them improve services for both patients and staff.
I really enjoy working with people over time and building the relationships with them, this is both externally and internally with the rest of my team and organisation.
- What upcoming projects are you working on?
I spend a lot of time working with our Scottish Customers, and we are just about to embark on an implementation project within South West Scotland.
We are also waiting with bated breath on a big rostering bid, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed for the outcome!
- In a perfect world…
We would be able to respond to all our customers’ requests etc instantly and all trains and planes would always run on time and there would never be any traffic jams, oh and I would look 20 years younger!!
If you have any questions you’d like to put to our team, email us at contactus@skillsforhealth.org.uk. To make sure you don’t miss our forthcoming pieces about our team, sign up to our newsletter.