Janice turns to the business of care

December 19, 2018

Featured in The Chronicle Week:
She’s gone from the fast-paced world of finance to investing in patient care.
Janice Barrett decided swap her life as a foreign exchange trader in Jamaica, to become a nurse. Now she works at one of the busiest NHS trusts in the West Midlands and is the first port of call for GPs who are referring patients needing urgent care.
The mum-of-two explained: “It’s definitely a very different role from what I did in Jamaica. When I came to the UK in 2000 I started working in a nursing home as a care assistant and I decided that caring for people was something I wanted to do, even though my background was in business.”
Janice, from West Bromwich, retrained as a nurse, and worked her way up to a Senior Sister role at Sandwell Hospital’s Emergency Department, where she was also Paediatric Lead Nurse.
Now she is leading a new initiative for GPs which has been introduced at Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust, called Single Point of Access.
GPs can call Janice’s team about a patient who then carry out a telephone assessment. They will then liaise with colleagues in specialty areas, to ensure the patient is seen in the correct department.
“Before the service was introduced in early November, these patients would generally arrive in our Emergency Department with a letter of referral from their GP,” said Janice.
“However, the Single Point of Access service is there to improve the patients’ journey ensuring that they access the appropriate care by the right teams in as timely manner as is possible.”
A typical shift for Janice starts at 7.30am to prepare for the day ahead. Janice added: “We open in line with the GP practices at 8am. We’ll take calls from the doctors and advanced nurse practitioners treating patients who they think may need urgent care.
“As a member of the community that this service provides care for, I have a vested interest in ensuring that our organisation is able to deliver a good standard of care for people in the area, as it’s what they deserve. It is also about that obligation as a care provider to make sure we are doing the right thing for our patients.
“I would say that without a doubt, working on the Single Point of Access is one of the main highlights of my career so far.
“Having that opportunity to be part of a new service which is already making a difference to the care of our patients is extremely rewarding.”
She added: “Now my focus is to make sure that SPA continues to be a worthwhile service and expands further to incorporate other areas within the Trust and the wider community. It’s a project that will benefit not only patients, and their families, but also our partners and other services within our area.”
So who is Janice’s hero? “I am a huge fan of Maya Angelou. I think the hardship she encountered as a woman and to have excelled in the way she did in spite of her situation is admirable.”