As a Registered Nurse for 25 years, Care Director Debbie Westwood has worked in many roles dedicated to direct patient care – including as an Advanced Nurse Practitioner in Urology.
Debbie went on to become a Senior Nurse in Practice and Professional Development at a large teaching hospital, Heartlands Hospital now the Heart of England NHS Trust.
There, she found a love for teaching and nurturing staff at all levels to give patient-centred, quality care.
Then, she took a role as Workforce Development Lead for the West Midlands South Strategic Health Authority before going on to work as Head of Service Redesign for the Worcestershire Clinical Commissioning Groups.
After being involved in the redesign and commissioning of end-of-life and palliative care for 10 years, Debbie joined St Richard’s Hospice as Head of Education in 2017.
In the same year, she achieved a Master’s in Health Care Leadership. Her passion for innovation and service design to continually improve patient and family experience of hospice care, led her to her current role as Care Director, starting in February 2019.
Debbie became the Care Quality Commission registered manager responsible for all the nursing and palliative care delivered by the clinical departments at St Richard’s Hospice in January 2021.