Kathryn Halford, our Chief Nurse and deputy Chief Executive, has been awarded an honorary doctorate from the academic board of the University of East London (UEL).

It’s in recognition of her commitment to developing the nursing workforce of the future. As well as her work at our Trust to nurture our nurses and grow our own workforce from within, Kathryn also worked with UEL to set up a registered nurses course, which was not previously available in north east London.

Kathryn has also ensured our Trust is one of the pioneers of the nursing associate scheme, opening a career in nursing to a much wider pool of people and many of our dedicated healthcare assistant are  going on to pursue careers in nursing thanks to this.

And she introduced our award-winning Senior Intern scheme, providing support to new nurses joining the workforce which seen many more nurses stay with us, after being given access to our ‘senior interns’ (experienced nurses at our Trust) to support them with any issues they may have.

Professor Amanda Broderick, Vice-Chancellor and President at UEL, said: “The award is in recognition for Kathryn’s longstanding national contribution to nursing, high quality care, and patient experience, and her outstanding support for developing the next generation of nurses.”

Kathryn, who has been invited to make a speech at the graduation ceremony on Friday 29 November, said: “It was a complete surprise as I knew nothing about it. I was delighted when I received the letter and it’s really good recognition of our work.”