Anna Telfer - Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Anna Telfer Associate Director of Nursing

Hello. My name is Anna Telfer and I am the Associate Director of Nursing for Children and Young People here at Newcastle Hospitals.

My role is to have professional responsibility for all children’s nurses across the organisation and to support all areas where children and young people receive care.

This includes providing advice relating to the care and treatment of children and young people, ensuring that safe and high quality care is provided and ensuring that the nursing workforce is supported to provide this care.

I lost my Mum at a very early age and I remember that the nurses who cared for her were so compassionate and caring. From that point I always felt that I would be drawn to a career in caring.

Caring for patients and families of all ages

I started my nursing career in 1997 as a student nurse at Northumbria University. I originally trained as an adult nurse and loved every placement that I completed, but soon realised two specific things: I loved working with children and young people and I loved emergency care.

I qualified as a nurse in 2000 where I started work as a staff nurse in the Accident and Emergency department at North Tyneside General Hospital. This presented me with the opportunity to gain great experience and insight into urgent and emergency presentations. I also had the opportunity to work with patients and families of all ages.

As an Accident and Emergency nurse I was able to complete the post-registration children’s nursing programme, which supported me to further understand the needs of children and families. When qualified I returned to work as a children’s nurse in both emergency and ambulatory care settings.

Working in the community

I was able to extend my interest in working with children and families when I became a Health Visitor in South East Northumberland. I credit this role with supporting me to understand the wider world and experiences that patients have when they leave the hospital setting.

I also developed a passion for public health nursing. I worked as a Health Visitor over a ten-year period in a number of roles including Community Practice Teacher and Health Visitor Area Lead. I was able to work with amazing families in the community, often in challenging situations.

After ten years I became a Matron, in a move that took me back to hospital and in particular Paediatric Emergency Care at the Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital. I felt that I had been able to develop leadership skills as a Health Visitor and this supported me in my Matron role.

I gained great experience into clinical standards, patient safety and safe staffing. I also had opportunities to support the wider Matron on-call roster over weekends. Being a dual-registered nurse meant that during the Covid-19 pandemic I was quite comfortable to work as a Matron in non-paediatric areas too.

Developing our workforce through practice education

After 5 years I felt that I wanted to use my skills and expertise in a new challenge and took a new direction working as a Nursing and Midwifery Practice Education Lead at Newcastle. This role continued to provide me with a diversity of portfolio that I had enjoyed throughout my career and I was able to support the Practice Education team and Workforce agendas including the Healthcare Support worker project and International Recruitment.

In turn, following an opportunity for a colleague, I was successfully appointed into a secondment as the Associate Director of Nursing for Children and Young People; I have never looked back. I am now in the role on a full time basis and have been able to continue my passion for working with children, young people and their families.

I feel like all of the roles that I have had previously have provided me with the skills to do the job and I am committed to ensuring that the identity of all of our services for children and young people are not lost and that the voice of the child, young person and family is clear in all that we do.