WellChild Nurse, Edinburgh

FACTFILE

Name: Brian Samwell

Job title: WellChild Nurse

Place of work: Royal Hospital for
Sick Children, Edinburgh

Area covered: Edinburgh

Phone: 0131 536 0019

Email: bsamwell@nhs.net

Brian is working to improve and simplify the procedures involved in getting a child home from hospital once it has been agreed that their care can be suitably provided by their family with support in the community.

As part of his WellChild Nurse role in Edinburgh, Brian spends time with parents to discuss their experiences of the way their child’s care was moved from hospital to home, and to identify any issues or positives in that process.

He feeds back key messages from those meetings to hospital staff, and regularly meets with the Discharge Liaison Nurse to discuss issues affecting children currently in the hospital and plan Nurse Discharge Working Group meetings.  That Group has been put together to discuss the best ways to improve and speed up the process for children who may be able to leave hospital, and Brian also plays a key role in helping to plan changes to hospital policies and procedures which make a real difference to children and families.

Brian has worked with children and young people for more than 30 years, as a youth worker, teacher, nurse and manager.  Qualifying as a children’s nurse in 1986 he spent several years working on children’s wards and then, after qualifying as a District Nurse, set up a Community Children’s Nursing service in Rotherham, South Yorkshire.   He has a Masters degree in nursing and was appointed to the WellChild post in August 2006.

 

“What's different about my job is that I have the time and flexibility to delve into the problems people are having and try to find solutions to those problems which might have been bugging people for years. It's great having the ability to talk to families and to other professionals and focus on a problem, creating solutions which are going to make a real difference. ”

Brian Samwell, WellChild Nurse.