A highly experienced and award-winning nurse who has worked in Emergency Departments in London has been appointed Lead Nurse for the National Rehabilitation Centre (NRC).
Rebecca Kenny, who has a wealth of experience of working across a wide range of clinical disciplines, including one of London’s busy major trauma centres, has joined the NRC leadership team.
Rebecca explained that she hopes that this new opportunity will enable her to help to change people’s lives for the better following serious illness or injury, as well as raising the profile of rehabilitation nurses and further developing the range of skills they bring to patient care.
The newly-appointed Lead Nurse explained that whilst she’s enjoyed working in a variety of interesting roles at Nottingham University Hospitals in recent years, she jumped at the chance to join the NRC team.
Rebecca said: “This role just blew me away – the NRC ambition is incredibly forward-thinking, and we will be caring for patients in a state-of-the-art facility which will also be a great work environment for our staff. It will have a completely different feel and energy to what we can provide in an acute hospital setting.
“Our Linden Lodge team do a fantastic job and are often supporting complex patients in difficult circumstances, predominantly in need of neurological rehabilitation.
“It’s really exciting that the team will bring a wealth of neuro-rehab expertise with them, expertise which will expand to a range of complex rehabilitation needs across musculoskeletal, major trauma, and deconditioning from long hospital stays, to name a few.”
Originally from County Clare in Ireland, Rebecca wanted to work in healthcare from a young age, after her dad was diagnosed with leukaemia when she was just six years old, and sadly died from the illness just a couple of years later.
Rebecca said: “It’s meant that I’ve gone through my career knowing that bad things happen to good people all the time so I want to be part of making things as comforting for people as they can be at such a difficult time.
“In turn, that has led me to work in a range of environments and to this new role that I’m in today.”
Rebecca completed her nursing training at the University of Nottingham, and her first job was on an admissions ward at Lincoln County Hospital when she first qualified in 2010, before she moved to London to work in the busy Emergency Departments at Charing Cross Hospital and major trauma centre St Mary’s Hospital Paddington.
Rebecca explained that in addition to stabbings, gunshot wounds and even the collapse of a theatre roof on an audience, she often saw cyclists who had been hit by cars or pedestrians who had been hit by cyclists, causing major trauma.
She said: “It was really rewarding. I enjoyed the pace and the teamwork in such a busy environment, as well as helping patients at the early stage of their trauma.
“These were people who had been going about their day-to-day lives, and then their life had been turned upside down; it was a privilege to be there to help them.
“Now in this new role, it’s about how we can support people through the rest of their lives.”
In 2015, Rebecca was named the Nursing Times’ Rising Star, and was awarded the Chairman’s Award at Imperial College Healthcare for ‘Engaging teams for success’ thanks to her work on teamwork and developing people to help improve health outcomes.
It was at this point that Rebecca decided to complete the Darzi Fellowship in Healthcare Leadership and moved to Nottingham with her husband, where she put her new leadership skills to use as Patient Safety Lead at Leicester’s Hospitals.
It wasn’t long before Rebecca joined Nottingham University Hospitals, where she has held several roles, including working as an operational Matron with the Cancer and Associated Specialities Team and also as a Senior Nurse for Care Excellence Accreditation with the Institute of Care Excellence
In addition to her new role at the NRC, Rebecca is currently undertaking her Masters of Business Administration via the apprenticeship scheme at Nottingham Trent University.
Rebecca explained that nursing has been an incredible career to date, and that rehabilitation nursing is a particularly special type of care provision which she is excited to be involved with, especially at such a pivotal time for the profession.
She said: “Being a nurse can give you so many amazing opportunities, and this is a particularly exciting time for rehabilitation nursing as it is so high on the national and international agenda – we have the chance to pioneer the rehab nursing journey which so often goes unseen.
“Rehabilitation nurses are a very special nursing team – they have to be so diverse in their thinking, working out creative solutions to our patients’ challenges and working closely with them and their families every step of the way.”
And Rebecca has some big plans for rehabilitation nursing at the NRC and beyond. Over the next 12 months she aims to develop a professional Nursing Rehabilitation Course to help introduce more colleagues to the exciting and rewarding field of rehabilitation nursing.
She said: “Many nurses and healthcare support staff across our acute wards have supported the rehabilitation of patients during their working day, so this is an opportunity to work with the same patient group, but at the next step on their recovery journey.
“Rehabilitation nurses live, work and breathe a holistic model of care, and we know this can be challenging to get right in an acute environment. We know the NRC will be able to support this in a way not seen before, which is very exciting.”
Nursing roles to join Rebecca at the NRC will be available in 2024 for nurses who are passionate about the future of rehabilitation. Visit the NRC website at Home - National Rehabilitation Centre.
Source: NRC
