International Nurses Day - meet Sarah Stirrup

With many nurses in her family, Sarah Stirrup was clear she didn’t want to follow in their footsteps.

Instead, she pursued a career as a systems analyst. But after caring for her parents before their deaths, and witnessing the compassion of the nursing teams, she felt inspired to retrain and see how she could make a difference. Sarah retrained aged 40, starting her course the same day her youngest started school and balancing her new career with parenthood.

Sarah spent a week with the research team at QEQM whilst a student, so when she was working in ITU at the WHH and spotted a research post at QEQM she decided to apply.

Now senior research nurse and team leader of the research delivery team at the William Harvey Hospital, Sarah works with teams across the hospital on a range of studies to help improve care for the future.

She said: “I wanted to do something that made a long-term difference for patients, and evidence shows that research active Trusts have better patient outcomes.

“Some people think research nursing is writing essays or dealing with data (and we do have a lot of important data!) but the data is because we give people new drugs, or trial new devices, or help find out which treatment or pathway is more effective.

“The pandemic helped raise the profile of research and how important it is; at the beginning no one knew what the treatment would be but through research we found treatments and then the vaccine."

Her background as an analyst helps with her current role, which involves a lot of project management and organisation.

She said: “One of the most positive things about nursing as a career is the many different options open to you and I definitely feel I am in the right place.

“Research really embodies the Trust values of making people feel safe and cared for, and making a difference, and it’s real holistic care.

“For me, the role embodies nursing and evidence-based care, and it is a privilege to work with patients who are so altruistic.

“They often won’t benefit personally from taking part in research but they are keen to be involved to help other people in the future.”

Sarah has seen many studies she is involved in translate into changes in practice. For example, the team helped test a vaccine for respiratory infection RSV which is now being rolled out after it was found to reduce hospitalisations for babies by 83 per cent.

She said: “I really want to embed more research across the Trust, and particularly to encourage more nurses, midwives and allied health professionals to get involved.

“If you have an idea, or a question, about why we do something, or how we could do it differently, that’s the start of a research question.

“Everyone can be involved in research and we have a great reputation at East Kent Hospitals for patient-centred research – I want to work with colleagues to build on that.”