Sophie shares some reflections on her experience below:

From as early as I can remember, my family always told me how I would make a wonderful nurse when I grew up, so of course I decided I would join a band and pursue a career of becoming a famous rock star! Strangely this didn’t work out too well for me, so I decided to heed their advice and completed my nurse training in 2006. It pains me to say that my family were right, and becoming a nurse is one of the best decisions I have ever made. I come from a long line of healthcare workers. My great-grandmother was a community midwife during WWII and was the only midwife for miles who would support mothers out of wedlock. My grandmother also worked in the field of care for many years, and my mother worked at a day centre for children with profound learning disabilities and developmental challenges. I am proud to say that I have carried on this caring streak, and I feel privileged to be a part of people's lives at a time when they are at their most vulnerable.

I began my nursing career working on a busy surgical ward, looking after patients pre and post major colorectal surgery. I also have experience in coronary care, maxillofacial surgery, and critical care, all of which were in the acute setting. I thoroughly enjoyed the hustle and bustle of working in a hospital environment, still, in 2013 I felt I was ready to experience something new, and I began looking for job opportunities in the community.

This is where I stumbled across a job advertisement for a Homeward Nurse in Sheffield, caring for patients who are tube feeding from home. I immediately knew this was the job I wanted as it enabled me to build strong relationships with patients and their families and ensure they felt empowered to self-manage their care at home and stay out of the hospital as much as possible. I was over the moon when I was offered the position, and I have never looked back!

Eleven years later I am still here! My job role has changed throughout the years however I love my job today just as much as I did on the first day I started. I began my career at Nutricia as the only adult Homeward Nurse in Sheffield and went on to complete training that allowed me to care for children as well as adults. Over time the nursing team has expanded and evolved, and I am now the Clinical Practice Manager for nine Homeward Nurses and one Homeward Care Assistant caring for approximately 700 patients in Sheffield, and I can honestly say it is the most rewarding job in the world. Aside from nursing, I have a passion for mental health and wellbeing, and I am a huge advocate for self-care.

I feel this is especially important in the field of nursing and other caring professions as often we focus our attention on our patients who need our support, and it is easy to forget about caring for ourselves. Burnout is a huge problem and something preventable if people are aware of their energy levels and take the time to recuperate and recharge their emotional wellbeing as and when required. In 2020 I took this interest of mine to the next level and began studying a master’s degree in psychology and graduated with distinction in 2022.

I am now training to become a Solution Focused Hypnotherapist in my spare time, and I provide guided relaxation sessions to my team twice a week. Whilst studying for my master’s, I discovered an interest in research and academia that I was unaware existed, and since completing my course I have gone on to write and publish research in several academic journals. One of which I am extremely proud of and that is the British Journal of Community Nursing which provides evidence into a previously under-researched area of community nursing related to patients who are tube feeding at home. It is from this that I won the British Journal of Nursing, Nutrition Nurse of the Year award which I am both shocked and over the moon about! I feel very lucky and grateful that Nutricia has enabled me to embed my passions into my day job. Not only do I have the huge honour of caring for patients at home, but I am also able to provide wellbeing support for the nursing team whilst researching elements of our work that could influence best practice and ultimately improve patient experience and care.

We are incredibly proud to support Sophie in recognising and applauding the hard work and unwavering commitment she has that makes significant impact on the lives of patients every day. The esteemed annual award ceremony took place on the 22nd March 2024 at BMA House, London WC1H 9JP.

The Nutricia Homeward Nursing Service is a dedicated home enteral feeding nursing service. We have over 160 experienced nurses supporting 30,000 tube-fed patients, their families and carers across the UK. They provide support and education on all aspects of home enteral feeding, from training on hospital wards to supporting patients at home or in care settings, they ensure safe and speedy hospital discharges often on the same day and help to build confidence with enteral feeding preventing tube feeding related hospital re-admissions.