Meet our nursing team

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Clinical Lead Nurse

Julie May, Registered Nurse and Clinical Lead

Julie heads up the team as Clinical Lead Nurse, enabling us to provide dedicated and compassionate support at home for people living with more complex healthcare needs. Julie regularly meets customers who didn’t believe it was possible to remain at home, working with her team to give her customers choice and independence.

Julie and her team of Clinical Nurse Managers have experience covering; spinal injury, acquired brain injury, dementia, cerebral palsy, behavioural issues, and neurological illness. Together the team care for hundreds of customers with higher level needs – often those with advanced forms of dementia and severe physical disabilities.

After qualifying as a nurse in 2009, Julie initially worked at Warwick Hospital on the coronary care unit and cardiology ward. Since then, she has worked predominantly in palliative care, beginning in a local hospice before moving into community nursing in 2011.

In 2014, Julie began working as the clinical lead/ deputy manager in a nursing home, where she was responsible for clinical governance, auditing, and quality assurance. She assessed residents aged 43 – 104 prior to admission to ensure the facility was able to safely meet their needs. Additionally, Julie supervised approximately 33 clinical staff covering fields including end of life care, dementia care, chronic conditions such as COPD, heart failure, and renal failure; and support for family members.

Julie has experienced many different professional settings, including hospice and district nursing. Her expertise is focused on making a positive impact to her customers and their families. Julie’s clinical experience is complemented by her additional Mentor and Assessing Qualification gained at Coventry University.

“To me, it is fundamental that care remains a choice,” she said. “A choice that is made by the person as an individual wherever possible, and one that involves that person in the planning of their care.”

Julie is a Registered Nurse with the Nursing & Midwifery Council and has completed further training with the NHS Leadership Academy, a programme that aims to help care leaders to improve patient experiences.

See Julie’s full profile here

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Meet our Clinical Nurse Managers

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Samantha Atkins, Clinical Nurse Manager

Samantha has been with Helping Hands for some time and loves being able to help customers stay in their own homes with tailored care to suit their individual needs. She has worked alongside nurses, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, psychologists, dietitians, speech and language therapists, and carers.

As well as this, Samantha has worked with a training company providing training to both care workers and student nurses on a range of subjects, including manual handling, safeguarding, infection control, health and safety, and palliative care.

Samantha explained, “My most recent experience has been as the clinical lead/deputy manager in a nursing home, covering areas such as palliative care, dementia care, and chronic conditions such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Parkinson’s disease and heart failure.”

Samantha is extremely passionate about care and she will always go the extra mile for her customers. She is a Registered Nurse with the Nursing & Midwifery Council.

See Samantha’s profile here

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Anne Dalby, Clinical Nurse Manager

Anne brings a wealth of professional experience to the team, having qualified as a nurse in 2013 she initially worked with the Community Nursing Team for Coventry Primary Care Trust before moving to Leicestershire Partnership Trust in 2015. It was here whilst working in Palliative Care with specialist services and hospices, that she says “it’s very humbling to work with patients going through palliative care, as nurses we always need to use our interpersonal skills and ensure that we show kindness, warmth, compassion and genuineness, but this is an area of care that I’m incredibly passionate about and I find it incredibly rewarding.”

Anne’s talents were spotted quickly and within six months she was asked to apply for a District Community Sisters post. This stretching role saw her oversea 40 community and nursing staff which covered a large area within Leicestershire. During this time Anne managed varying clinical caseloads, including COPD, heart failure and diabetic patients.

Anne’s key achievements are many but include piloting the Blueprint for the trust on a new system for covering extended working hours, taking unscheduled visits and triaging incoming referrals, plus being part of a working group for the Gold Standards Palliative Care scheme after it was introduced into her clinical area.

Never one to shy away from any additional learning, experiences or additional qualifications that she can gain in order to further her knowledge, in 2015, she completed further training with the NHS Leadership Academy. The programme develops care leaders’ – to give them the ability to influence positive change to improve experiences and outcomes for patients. This specialised understanding enables Anne to recognise how individuals learn which leaves her well-placed to guide Helping Hands Carers.

Anne’s clinical experience is complemented by her additional mentoring qualification gained at Coventry University. At Helping Hands, she utilises her clinical acumen and leadership qualities to educate Carers and provide customers with a responsive, proactive and informative care service.

Anne says “I’m really passionate that people have a choice about their care, and ensuring that any customers requiring clinical intervention are able to receive the high quality care they deserve while staying in their own home, in the place that they feel comfortable and safe.”

See Anne’s profile here

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Hannah Gambrell, Clinical Nurse Manager

Hannah primarily supports customers with more complex healthcare needs who are based within East Anglia. She holds a BSc Hons degree in Adult Nursing at the University of East Anglia and as a Registered Nurse with the Nursing & Midwifery Council, she previously supported patients in nursing homes, in a community setting and while working at an acute trust.

During her time working in an acute trust, Hannah worked within stroke services, which included the hyper-acute unit, acute unit and neurology. She has also gained extensive experience in caring for post thrombolysis patients, neurological patients, tracheostomy patients, patients on intravenous infusions, patients on enteral feeding and patients with complex needs.

Hannah is also highly experienced in managing the clinical aspects of care, and is accustomed to working in partnership with Continuing Healthcare, clinical commissioning groups, social services and private case management companies.

“I am passionate about enabling people to live safely at home with the facilitation they require to live as independently as possible,” she says.”It is so rewarding to facilitate them to achieve outcomes that, in another setting, they might not have had the opportunity to pursue.”

With much experience of supervising both upskilled support workers and registered nurses, together with delivering clinical training to support workers and completing their clinical competencies, Hannah talks about the support available at Helping Hands. “Most of our customers have a permanent carer, which means they have consistency and continuity of care. This is paramount in enabling them to achieve their outcomes, and I’m very proud to be part of a team that places so much value on this.”

See Hannah’s profile here

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