Sandra Dunford

Sandra Dunford, who recently completed Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust’s staff nurse ‘step up’programme, is working towards her goal of becoming a district nurse with the Trust.

The unique programme forms a yearlong secondment and allows registered community nurses to gain the necessary experience needed to become senior community nurses. Each nurse on the programme is supported with an an individual mentor.

After successfully completing the ‘step up’ programme in September 2017, Sandra has nowgone on to study at University to gain a specialist practitioner district nurse qualification.

Sandra credits the programme with introducing her to a number of concepts early, giving her a head start when it comes to becoming qualified as a district nurse.

Talking about the programme, Sandra said: “I have been introduced to a number of different leadership skills such as resilience and emotional intelligence which really benefits me in my role and has given me the knowledge and confidence to successfully apply for my university course to complete my formal training.

“The programme has expanded my depth of knowledge and given me the opportunity to practice these skills but with close mentorship and guidance. It’s one thing going from managing your own risk to manging those of a team but the programme has given me the confidence in clinical decision making.”

Describing herself, Sandra said, “I was never one of those people who felt confident in leading people, I would never stick my hand in the air and say I wanted to be a leader but the programme has given me that stepping stone, by teaching me a range of skills such as risk management HR and team dynamics, I need to become a senior community nurse with all the right mentorship in place.”