Sia initially completed a single spoke day with Pioneer in her first year of her nursing degree, this peaked her interest in wound care and lymphoedema and she went on to be allocated a placement with Pioneer in her second year of her nursing studies. This placement confirmed her passion for the specialist area, resulting in a request to complete her management placement with Pioneer too!
Sia oozed ambition, had a thirst for learning and a desire to improve patients’ quality of life, she became Pioneers first appointment of a newly qualified nurse after excelling in her placements.
Sia O’Grady said “I was over the moon to be offered a position at Pioneer as my first nursing role after graduation, but also nervous to start in this specialist area independently. The team at Pioneer have been extremely welcoming. As the first Staff Nurse employed here, I have felt encouraged to give feedback on how the service and care we provide could be improved.
Pioneer has been extremely supportive of my learning through this initial post-graduate period, and I have learnt so much over the first 6 months of my nursing career.
I was quickly offered training for my role as a Staff Nurse so that I may be able to carry out practice including advanced skills such as sharp debridement and compression bandaging to enable my patients the best care and health outcomes.
I was also invited by Carole Young, Pioneers Professional Nurse Advocate (PNA), and Laura Russell, Ambulatory Lead – Nurse Consultant Tissue Viability, to help co-design Pioneer’s preceptorship program. The programme was created to help integrate newly qualified nurses and nurse apprentices into practice and to fully support them through the beginning of their nursing career. It has been a great experience which I feel grateful to have been a part of.”
Sia O’Grady
A newly qualified nurse at Pioneer
Laura Russell reflects “we are proud to have pioneered a new approach to introducing newly qualified nurses into highly specialist care centres – an area not traditionally seen as an entry point for early career nurses. Through close collaboration with aspiring student nurses, it became evident that supporting nurses to develop specialist skills early in their careers offers significant benefits. This insight inspired the creation of a dedicated preceptorship programme at Pioneer, designed to guide and support newly qualified nurses as they grow, develop and transition into specialist roles and to help reimagine the future of tissue viability and lymphoedema services.
We are especially proud of Sia, who has embraced this opportunity with enthusiasm. Her positive start reflects the potential of this pathway, and we look forward to watching her career flourish.”
Carole Young states “Sia is a perfect example of when an organisation offers a supportive learning environment, it can inspire someone to start their nursing journey within a specialist field. Supporting newly qualified and pre-registration students helps Pioneer to grow and recruit nurses like Sia with a passion in wound healing and lymphoedema. Sia has settled really well into her role and is already “paying it forward” by supporting and being instrumental in the development of the new Preceptorship programme. We were keen to develop this bespoke programme with our newly qualified and pre-registration staff rather than something generic. I look forward to continuing work with Sia and all our future newly qualified nurses!”.