Sarah Harriman has worked at The Wesley Hospital for ten years, spending five of those in the Wesley Paediatrics Ward. She says that working with children has renewed her love of nursing:

“The thing I like the most about working with children is that they give you energy, and so work is a lot more invigorating. I like singing with the kids and being able to use my imagination. I’m known to sing to kids if I’m doing a procedure… and it’s always ‘everybody clap’!

“There is a lot of education in paediatric roles. It’s about looking after a family, not just a child, so it’s a very holistic care process where you work really closely with doctors and parents, and inform decisions together.

“It’s the true meaning of holistic nursing, where you have a broad scope of what you need to do to for family…because it affects everybody if a child comes to hospital.

“The only thing a parent wants is somebody to look after their child in the way that they would … and that’s what I aim to do every day as a Paediatric Nurse.”