Sarah has been a Mental Health Nurse Lecturer in the College of Human and Health Sciences since 2013. She began her nursing career as an Auxiliary nurse in 1991, before commencing nurse training in 1992. Sarah qualified as a Registered General Nurse (RGN) in 1995 and qualified as a Registered Mental Health Nurse (RNMH) in 2001. More recently, in 2014, Sarah became recognised as a Registered Nurse Teacher (RNT) and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA), following a Post Graduate Certificate (PG Cert) in Education for Health Professionals. Sarah pursued the PG Cert, completing a MA in Education for Health Professionals in 2016. As a Fellow of the HEA, Sarah is now also an assessor of those applying for fellowship.
Sarah predominantly teaches within the pre-registration nursing curriculum and is an academic mentor to pre-registration nursing students on a variety of programmes. She is module lead for the Acute Care in mental health module that runs during the second year of the nursing curriculum and field lead for Managing Complex Care in Rapidly Changing Situations (Mental Health) that runs during the third year of the nursing curriculum. Within the role of nurse lecturer, Sarah also covers a variety of clinical areas in the Hywel Dda Health Board and carries out educational audits and visits students whilst they are out on placement.
In addition to this, Sarah is the Deputy Programme lead for the Masters in Education for Health Professions and she is module lead for post graduate modules, Advanced Practice and Education, a module that is part of the MSc in Advanced Practice and the nurse mentorship training programme. Sarah also delivers clinical supervision training workshops to Local Health Board staff.
Prior to beginning a career in nurse education, Sarah specialised in Primary Mental Health, within Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). Consequently, Sarah takes a lead in teaching about Child and Adolescent Mental Health issues and leads a CAMHS workshop for Pre-registration nurses bi-annually. Sarah has developed an interest in self-harm and suicidal behaviours and incorporates this into relevant teaching on the nursing curriculum.
In addition to teaching and scholarly activities, Sarah represents the College at the All Wales Pre-Registration Nursing and Midwifery group that was set up by the Chief Nursing Officer for Wales and has a key role in developing the nursing curriculum. Sarah is also a service user champion for the mental health nursing programme at Swansea University, which involves developing and promoting service user and carer involvement in all aspects of the nursing programme.