The key to running a great health service is having the right people, with the right skills, in the right places. Brenda Jumi helps put the pieces in the puzzle together.
Brenda, who lives in Warley, is the Workforce Redesign Manager for Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust (SWB). Her role is to ensure that health service teams have the right staff with the skills and competencies to help deliver care to all members of the community.
She has been in the NHS for over 25 years, starting her career as a nurse with a background in acute medicine. Brenda said: “Nursing runs in my family. My aunties were in both general and mental health nursing after moving from Barbados. It seems to be a theme in my family that the females go into the caring profession, so it seemed natural to me.”
She joined SWBH 15 years ago as Ward Manager of Emergency Admissions before completing an MBA and a postgraduate qualification in strategic workforce planning. A secondment to join the team leading Right Care Right Here, the initiative to bring enhanced care across acute and community settings, helped Brenda to build a career in her current role.
Brenda commented: “The secondment helped me to look at workforce and service delivery models across health and social care. I worked with GPs, practice nurses, the local council and many other stakeholders, which gave me a good insight into what we needed in terms of having the right future service and workforce models to meet the needs of our community, so they experience an efficient and seamless system.”
Brenda still uses her experience as a nurse to drive her work. She said: “I worked in the frontline so I understand what clinical staff experience on a daily basis, therefore this professional judgement helps to develop these future systems. It helps me to keep it real. Even though now I don’t work at the frontline everyday, patients are still my focus, and this is reflected in my decision making. What I am doing is relatively new, so I want my legacy to be that I have left good grounds for people to work from. The team and I are determined to do well.”
After a long career in healthcare, Brenda finds it hard to pin down one highlight. She said: “To work in the health service has been a real privilege. I have seen people overwhelmed with joy from good news, I have seen people who have been overwhelmed with grief from bad news, and have had some unique experiences. All of it has been memorable and I have the privilege to help patients at either end of the emotional spectrum.”
Away from work, Brenda enjoys swimming, cooking, enjoying R&B and reggae music and visiting Caribbean carnivals with son Joshua and husband Howard. She also tries to go to Barbados when she can.
Brenda’s career was inspired by her own hero, her Dad. “He is one of the greatest people in my life. He has been my driver and taught me that anything is possible.”
