We’ve been recognised for the support we give to new nurses joining our hospitals.

We were named Preceptorship of the Year at the Nursing Times Workforce Awards on Thursday (4 October) after developing a senior intern team to provide a successful mentoring and coaching programme for our new nurses – the first scheme of its kind in the country.

It was developed by our Chief Nurse, Kathryn Halford, who was inspired after watching the film, The Intern, starring Anne Hathaway whose character benefits from the wisdom and support of Robert De Niro’s character, who’s retired but returns to the working world as an intern.

Kathryn said: “We were over the moon just to be shortlisted given there was such a high calibre of entries, so to win really was the icing on the cake!

“Supporting our new nurses is so important. I can remember when I first started out as a nurse, it can be disorientating on the ward for the first time and being responsible for your patients, so to have a more experienced colleague who can provide help and advice can make a huge difference. We’ve recently welcomed lots of new nurses to our Trust and had lovely feedback about this scheme, and it shows how we’re putting our staff first.”

Senior interns support new nurses as they move into their first staff nurse post after completing their training, a time when they can feel very vulnerable as they are finding their feet.

Since launching a year ago, the intern programme has been hugely successful in halting the number of new nurses leaving our Trust.

Pictured is left to right; Anne Honey (Senior Intern), Beverly Sawer (Lead Senior Intern/Recruitment Nurse) and Maxine Ainah (Senior Intern).