Sophie Firth

I'm a 34 year old female, with a current full UK driving license. I'm currently a Mental Health Nurse working in Learning Disability Challenging behaviour respite and complex physical health service, Whilst working within my current role, I provide high quality nursing care to each service user that attends the service, by ensuring I read each service users files to ensure my knowledge is up to date, know their personal needs, routines and understand how to effectively communicate with everyone tailoring my approach to be person centred to their needs. I ensure they have full access to resources that are beneficial to them and what they enjoy doing to create a more effective care and stay so the service users feels valued, understood, and stimulated. I have a lot of knowledge of the problems and difficulties experienced by people with learning disabilities as well as the additional health needs from my current job role and previous. I have 8 years' experience of working in a mental health setting as a HSW and throughout my training as a nurse. This has given me a lot of knowledge and understanding of a broad range of mental health conditions and what therapeutic interventions and treatments can help people with learning disabilities. This includes knowledge of bio psychosocial factors which influence health and ill health and predispose individuals to risk. I have a comprehensive knowledge of assessing and managing clinical risk, together with knowledge of best practice and the different causes and risk factors for self-harm and suicide. With being an RMN Nurse I have a good understanding of mental health services and of the relevant legislation Mental Health Act, Mental Capacity Act. I also complete training to keep up to date with the relevant information and latest practices. I have a passion to work with people who has learning disabilities as I want to make a difference to their lives by providing them with personal, physical and emotional support to help them feel independent and confident and able to provide them with new opportunities to go on outings that they may not have access too as well as creating activities and carrying them out with them to help them develop different life skills. I have patience, empathy and understanding of different needs and complexity of each service user however I am also willing to learn and able to ask questions and help from others to develop my knowledge and understanding to build good rapport. Throughout my time as a nurse, I have carried out care planning for the complex needs of service users. I have implemented and evaluated their care plans and adapted them. I have shared these within the wider team to get their feedback, encouraged their input as well supporting discussion and suggestions then applying the appropriate nursing interventions that are person centred. As part of my current role I have developed a passion for supporting and educating new starters, students and preceptors. I work closely with the student lead educator to allow me have students. I encourage others to develop their skills and spend time explaining my role to support others to develop theirs. The feedback I have received from students has been very positive. I have further developed my clinical skills by completing my mentorship so I can sign of students on placement. I'm also passionate about physical health and I am the lead on this for our unit. I have mentored a band 4 to develop her clinical skills to complete her training and get signed of so they can carry out blood taking. The skills and qualities I possess include an ability to always put service users first in everything I do whilst providing safe, effective, and appropriate care. I am somebody who will always follow my training and adhere to the NHS working practices and procedures. Within my role I understand I have the duty to ensure both myself and colleagues are always safe and that I follow all the regulatory guidelines and procedures especially in respect of maintaining confidentiality, safeguarding, equality and diversity, health and safety as well as conducting risk assessments. I have excellent concentration skills and the ability to work in challenging situations. This requires me to maintain a strong and resilient mindset. I always use the most effective communication to meet individual needs, and these will be tailored to the situation I am working in utilising empathy and de-escalation skills as and when required. I can embrace change positively and adapt to it on a regular basis as this ensures the service is able to provide a consistently high standard of care throughout. I always take responsibility within my role for maintaining competence through a process of continuous learning, improvement, and development of myself. The strengths I have are many and varied including the ability to work hard under pressure, a desire to a provide a quality service and a passion for delivering outstanding patient care. I am extremely resourceful, and I am someone who can work alone unsupervised and enjoys working as part of a team to achieve a common goal as well as some one that is highly motivated and can motivate others by lead by example. I am open and respectful to each staff, encouraging them be involved in the decision making and create an environment they are comfortable working in and communicate effectively so they know what is expected of them It is important to ask colleagues if they are okay in carrying out a task or if they need support to complete it. I take the time to check in on staff as well as providing feedback and I thank staff at the end of the shift to which I believe can help people feel valued and appreciated. I am loyal and committed person who will work hard to learn the role quickly with a view to carrying out my role with consistency, professionalism and with a focus on quality of patient care with attention to detail endurance and creative problem solving. I have also gained experience in managing challenges between staff conflicts on shifts and resolving these quickly, so they don't impact on the service users experience. This is by finding solutions, listening to staff and offering supervision. One of my roles within the team is to carry out managerial supervision and clinical to HSW within the team as well as complete my own clinical supervision and complete my appraisal to continue my development as nurse. Caring and empathetic Nurse with 12 years of experience providing therapeutic support for adults with disabilities. Competent planner, developer and implementer of complex individual program plans. Certified medication administrator, verifying patient medicine and nutrition plan adherence according to strict detail. Enthusiastic individual dedicated to delivering compassion, accessible support. Strong relationship-building skills and emotional intelligence. History of achieving positive results in collaboration with multidisciplinary team.

• Epilepsy training
• Diabetes awareness
• Venepuncture
• Catheterising