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Lead Diabetes Specialist Nurse at Calderdale and Huddersfield Foundation Trust
Ani works as a Lead DSN with over 7 years of experience in the specialist post and 19 years qualified as a nurse looking after patients with diabetes. Ani is an independent prescriber and has various degrees in diabetes care and recently completed an Msc in Advanced Diabetes Care. She played a pivotal role in integrating primary and secondary care by delivering a Level 3 service across the community. She also recently completed the Diabetes UK Tomorrow’s Leaders course where she worked as a team with DSNs from different trusts.
Since taking on the post as the Lead DSN she has made huge changes within the service delivery. She re-designed her existing DSN workforce, by looking at the team dynamics and recruiting the right nurses. She introduced the role of Diabetes Support Nurse, which is a relatively new role nationally; this was to make sure that the right front line staff were delivering the appropriate care. She worked with her team to introduce hypo boxes on the wards as well as submitting a proposal for the STP bid to improve the inpatient services, which they have recently won.
As a Clinical Champion, Ani’s project looks at introducing a structured education programme for inpatient nurses. She wants to develop training and support networks to increase the knowledge of the ward nurses in her area.