Heartbeat: Rachael Hebbert – by royal appointment!
December 14, 2020
Born at Sandwell General Hospital, Lead Advanced Nurse Practitioner for Your Health Partnership (YHP) PCN Rachael Hebbert is very excited and incredibly proud to have earned the distinction of being a Queen’s Nurse.
Speaking to Heartbeat, she explained: “Nursing is my passion, especially nursing for older people, which is the area I find most rewarding, and where I have focussed my career. However, there was a time once I saw my career path in teaching as I am a qualified teacher and enjoy passing on knowledge and skills. I used to have a part-time post teaching ‘A’ level health and social care at Halesowen College whilst also working as a Nurse Advisor to the Older Person in Worcestershire.
“I’m lucky that my nursing career has enabled me to pursue that dream in conjunction with my clinical role. I enjoy teaching student nurses and more junior colleagues and am currently teaching community pharmacists about the assessment of minor illness in my spare time.”
The path to becoming a Queen’s Nurse is open to individual nurses who have demonstrated a high level of commitment to patient care and nursing practice.
All nurses, health visitors and midwives with five years’ experience working in the community or primary care are eligible to apply. The application process includes a detailed description and explanation of how the nurse lives the values of the Queen’s Nurse Institute (QNI) and endeavours to develop quality nursing services for patients. Rachael received her accolade after demonstrating a high level of commitment to patient care and nursing practice. Nursing for 27 years and in YHP for six, Rachael leads the home visiting team for YHP where they substitute for a GP on home visits. She also leads on non-medical prescribing, end of life care, personalised care and is responsible for organising the multi-disciplinary team meetings within YHP. This award recognises her commitment to improving services and care for our patients in the community.
She continued: “Sadly COVID-19 has affected our service currently as we are able to see fewer patients face to face on home visits due to the risk that we pose to housebound vulnerable patients. However, video consulting is great to be able to assess patients virtually.
“I am very enthusiastic about personalised care and all that this entails and would like to develop services further to ensure that the patient is at the heart of everything we do. Above all else, I wish to continue with a clinical, patient-facing aspect to my work. Joining the Trust with YHP has presented many more exciting opportunities for the development of clinical roles. The opportunities especially for nurses are boundless particularly in terms of advanced practice.”
Rachael is keen to keep it in the family as her husband she describes as “an exceptional man who is also an advanced nurse practitioner in the organisation.”
Proud mum to two grown-up daughters, one of whom is a community psychiatric nurse and the other is in the Army; Rachael is excitedly awaiting the birth of her first grandson due in March 2021.
Rachael’s one regret on receiving her award now is that her mom didn’t get to see it. “I’m a little sad that my Mom, who passed away five years ago, was not around to see it – she would have been chuffed to bits!”