May 2021
Sally
Carney
,
RGN, RSCN,
Endocrine Team
Sheffield Children's NHS Foundation Trust
Sheffield
,
South Yorskhire
United Kingdom

 

 

 

Sally was an early trailblazer managing patients in the clinic where she saw many of our thyroid and growth hormone patients.
Sally is a truly exceptional nurse, one of a kind. She has been responsible for establishing a pediatric endocrine nurse specialist (ESN) service at SCH and leads the nursing team, despite being retired (we are so grateful that she has come back from retirement to continue working with her patients and our team). Sally’s potential was spotted as a neonatal nurse and she was recruited to endocrinology, initially to carry out researching longitudinal growth study in neonates.

This important but challenging research ran for over a decade and its success was largely due to Sally’s tenacity and force of personality. She was appointed as an ESN in the late 1990s and, due to the respect and confidence she already commanded, was given free rein to develop endocrine diagnostic testing protocols. She has overseen the evolution and expansion of the ESN service to now include four (soon to be five) nurse specialists.

Sally was an early trailblazer managing patients in the clinic where she saw many of our thyroid and growth hormone patients. She has encouraged and supported the development of the other ESNs to take on these extended roles through nurse prescribing courses etc. Nationally she has been a key figure in expanding the role of ESNs and took a lead in starting the ESN day at the annual meeting of the British Society for Endocrinology and Diabetes (now an embedded and very popular part of the annual conference). She has presented at several national meetings and has publications mostly around neonatal research.

Locally she has run several patient support groups, in particular, the Turner Syndrome support group, in the evenings, in her own time. However, these achievements don’t really capture what is wonderful about Sally. She has been excellent in a way that is difficult to describe and quantify. She is a fabulous communicator, very caring, and families all love her. She's been an invaluable member of the team and we feel this award is befitting of such a self-effacing but special colleague.