Jo Hadfield, Complex Care Nurse

“I feel very proud to work in such an amazing organisation, I tell everyone it’s a fantastic place to work!”

Jo Hadfield – Complex Care Nurse

Growing up Jo always wanted to be a nurse. Between 1989 and 1991 she even spent her Youth Training Scheme (YTS) working in Sheffield Children’s medical records department as a 16 year old.

Jo said: “I came back to the Trust in 1993 for a full time job in Radiology, initially in the filing office then as a radiographic aide. Working at Sheffield Children’s was the next best thing to being a nurse.”

But that wasn’t quite good enough for Jo, who decided to go to night school and gain the qualifications she needed to apply to study Nursing at university.

“In 2002, I was lucky enough to have been seconded from the Trust to attend the University of Sheffield. I had an 18 month old when I started studying and three years later at the ripe old age of 32 I had qualified – so I’d tell anyone it’s never too late to achieve your goals in life!”

When she returned, Jo was finally able to continue her career as a nurse and has now been at Sheffield Children’s for 28 years.

She said: “It’s difficult to pick one moment from my time here as I have worked with some incredible people and made many friends along the way. Qualifying was a great achievement – as I didn’t think it would ever happen – but having the opportunity to care for so many children and make a difference to their lives if only with them for a short time has been my absolute privilege.”

At the time COVID-19 began to affect the way we provided healthcare, Jo was working in the community with children with feeding difficulties and home visits were restricted for a while.

“That is where technology came in and made it possible to stay in touch with families so they didn’t feel alone or isolated. It was meeting the families in the community who were caring for children with complex health needs – their daily struggles and the lack of support available – that made me want to work with the Complex Care Team.”

The Complex Care Team was created this year to support other clinical teams, patients and their families if they are under multiple specialties or have been an inpatient for 28 days or more. They aim to take a holistic approach to the patient, overseeing all aspects of their care and enabling a safe, effective and timely discharge whilst ensuring that community support and social care provision is in place if required.

Jo added: “Already the service is picking up pace. My role is to help coordinate all aspects of care for children with complex health needs and make sure there is good communication between the teams and families for inpatients, outpatients and children in the community. All of this is about helping make life a little easier for them.

“I have spent pretty much all of my adult life at Sheffield Children’s and feel very proud to work in such an amazing organisation; I would tell anyone it’s a fantastic place to work. The people here are the best. They are dedicated and committed to improving the health and lives of the children we care for and my plan is to continue working here for many more years to come!”