KMPT Health care practitioner Sarah Harper wins Health Care Support Worker award!

As the saying goes, ‘follow your passion and success will follow’, and this was certainly the case for KMPT Support, Time and Recovery Worker Sarah Harper.

Winning the Chief Nursing Officer and Chief Midwifery Officer Award (HCSW) for her exceptional contribution and support in nursing and midwifery by the Royal College of Nursing, Sarah’s passion for supporting colleagues, her dedication to delivering patient care and representing the values of KMPT, is evident.

Based in Coleman House in Dover, Sarah Harper has been working within the Community Mental Health Team within Kent and Medway as Support, Time and Recovery worker since 2021 – a team made up of psychiatrists, community mental health nurses, occupational therapists, psychological services and support staff who provide support and treatment to 18-65-year olds experiencing complex or serious mental health problems within the community.

Sarah started her healthcare career in 2008 within the Blood and Transplant Service as a donor carer, where she carried out health screening, venepuncture, blood donations and aftercare. With this new knowledge and experience, she began to climb the career ladder and went on to train and supervise probationary staff – before landing a customer care role that saw her developing the working environment of the organisation.

In the summer of 2020, she was seconded from NHS Blood and Transplant Service to Convalescent Plasma clinics, and began working on an exciting project during lockdown, which used plasma from donors with high antibody levels on Covid19 patients who had weakened immune systems.

“Once the secondment had ended I went back to (working in) whole blood and this was when I decided to stay in the care profession at KMPT to expand on my skills and develop new ones. I really wanted to move into a career path that I was passionate about,” said Sarah as she reflected on her journey in healthcare.

Sharing her excitement at the news of being nominated for the HCSW award, and the even bigger news of winning, Sarah says:

I was overwhelmed when I heard that I won because the nomination in itself, was an achievement for me. The phrase ‘you’re only as good as the people you have around you’ is true for me because I work with an amazing team and amongst some incredible and hardworking individuals,” says Sarah, who received her HCSW award at the Chief Nursing Officer and Chief Midwifery Officer awards ceremony in Maidstone on Tuesday 12th March.

Hayley Pheiffer, Sarah’s operational manager at Coleman House, shares why Sarah exemplifies KMPT’s values of respect, innovation, collaboration and the ability to be open: “During her three years as a STR, Sarah has displayed her dedication and quality care to patients, her extensive clinical skills and expertise in working with phlebotomy.

“Before Sarah joined the team, the Community Mental Health Team were struggling to access additional support for the qualified clinic nurses. This meant that appointments were longer and we struggled to meet all of our performance targets within the designated time frames. Since joining the team, Sarah has assisted the clinic nurses to ensure that robust physical health checks were completed within a timely manner and escalated physical health concerns for clients with serious mental illness. She has consistently gone over and above within all aspects of her role, and as a direct result of her support and pro-active attitude, performance checks and compliance rates have increased every quarter,” adds Hayley.  

If you are inspired by Sarah’s story, you can visit our careers website and check out our current vacancies: KMPT | KMPT Vacancies.