Kelly Harwood is a fabulous leader and compassionate coach. Kelly is the Ward sister on Ward 1 and has supported and guided her staff to enable them to work as a cohesive, patient-centred team who care beyond expectations for their patients. The ward has all side rooms, and Kelly has processed, mapped, and developed ways of working that enable both her staff and patients to be safe.

In 2024, we have had two episodes where patients were in the emergency department at the end of life, and Kelly has managed to enable these patients to have a dignified death in a ward area.

Kelly is an asset to the trust and upholds all the Trust values and behaviours, and ensures all her staff uphold these too.

Kelly stepped into the Matron role to enable the leadership of the acute Medicine pathway to be supported. She stepped into this role with ease and instantly gave assurance and raised concerns as required. She developed clinical education pathways for IENs with acute medicine, which enabled us to retain staff in posts due to the level of support she offered them through other ward areas. Kelly supported her Ward leads whilst in this post and also interacted with other ward areas within medicine to enable leadership and support across the division.

Kelly has now decided to step back into her ward lead role, but in January, she offered to be seconded to an escalation ward to lead and manage the ward to decrease the risk of harm and to support the staff working in this area.

Kelly deserves a special thank you for her work for ULTH on a daily basis