Miss Sarah Dunford
Sarah’s career to date has been mostly focused within secondary care in an acute hospital setting. She started her career as a resident pharmacist on the Structured Training and Experience for Pharmacists (STEP) programme and progressed to the role of a specialist cardiology pharmacist.
The start of the COVID-19 pandemic brought Sarah’s interest and focus back to general medicine. Prior to becoming a clinical fellow, Sarah worked as the highly specialist pharmacist in general medicine and medication safety where she managed the pharmacy service provided to three acute general medical wards and an intermediate care rehabilitation unit (providing specialist level 2b neuro-rehabilitation), and therefore has a strong awareness and understanding of the importance and challenges of integrated care systems with a passion to continue to drive improvements in this area.
Sarah’s area of special interest is elderly care particularly in the management of frail older adults, and the importance of the pharmacist’s role in a comprehensive geriatric assessment. She has also completed her independent prescribing with a focus on the prevention and management of osteoporosis.
Sarah has led on service development through expansion and adaption of general medical wards during the COVID-19 pandemic and more lately the monkeypox outbreak, and the service improvement of the intermediate care rehabilitation centre.
Sarah has a strong focus on medication safety and driving system changes to improve patient care. Sarah has been involved in a number of local safety projects that have also been shared nationally.
Reason for applying for the scheme
Having been involved in medication safety, improvement and development at a local level, Sarah is excited to expand her knowledge and understanding of national initiatives whilst focusing on developing her leadership and management skills. Sarah has a drive to be involved with national change and to understand further how key decisions affecting the care of our patients are made at scale. She has a desire to learn from some of the best leaders in healthcare and to develop her understanding of national priorities.
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