When life comes full circle it is a pleasure to see, and Sonia Williams is a great example of just that!
As a child, Sonia attended Leasowes School on the very site on which she now works at the Leasowes Immediate Care Centre.
Sonia has been an Intermediate Care Nurse at Leasowes for around 11 years, a few months before it was first constructed in 2004.
“I joined the intermediate care team at Leasowes months before the building opened as the team was formed so that the crossover would be smooth.
“We used to share offices with the social workers in Smethwick in the meantime,” Sonia said. “When it opened in June 2004 it still wasn’t ready for patients until January the next year but all the staff moved into the building to get it ready.”
As an Intermediate Care Nurse, Sonia’s role is integral to the running of her service as her patients require a lot of specialist care and consideration.
“I provide whatever my patients’ need and refer them to specialists such as speech and language therapists and dieticians and also ensure that our supplies are ordered and that we never run out of anything.”
Her role at Leasowes hasn’t been her only role in the Trust.
“I have worked within the trust since 1988 when I worked at the Dudley Road Hospital, which is now City Hospital, then moved onto Sandwell before coming to Leasowes, but I trained at Russell’s Hall Hospital in Dudley.”
Working in healthcare in the Birmingham area is a family affair for Sonia as her sisters have worked in different hospitals in the area.
“One of my sisters works at Heartlands in the Endoscopy department and my other sister, who has retired now, was a HCA at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital after working in the Burns Unit at Sandwell.”
Sonia has found her 27 years nursing career easy due to the care and compassion she has shown throughout the years.
“I just love caring for and helping people” Sonia said.
“It may sound really simple, but there is no better feeling than seeing someone leave significantly improved from when they came in.”
“We have had cases where we looked at a patient being brought in for rehabilitation and we have thought it will be a big challenge and when they walk out it gives the whole team a great sense of pride.”
