Soumya Sononey is one of our Clinical Educators, and the Preceptorship Lead for international nurses.
Soumya joined the trust in 2019 on the stroke ward and has a passion for supporting new nurses in practice based on her own experiences of the challenges of being a newly qualified nurse. As an international nurse as well, she could closely relate to the challenges international nurses go through when moving to a new country and starting a new job.
“I felt that there was a need for a lot of support for the new nurses in practice, regardless of whether they’re newly qualified nurses or international nurses,” says Soumya. “I knew to make real changes I had to start from the little things, like making sure to ask new nurses if they needed any help and supporting the overseas nurses in my clinical area.”
In 2022, Soumya moved to her current role as Lead for the Nurse Preceptorship Programme. Soumya now helps newly qualified nurses, newly registered international nurses and newly qualified nursing associates to have a better and supportive experience during their transition from a supernumerary nurse to a qualified registered nurse. Soumya collects feedback from newly registered nurses and the national preceptorship framework to design the preceptorship program, which constantly evolves to deliver the best support possible.
“Preceptorship is for newly registered nurses to develop their confidence and autonomy,” continues Soumya. “It gives many opportunities for reflection and feedback and allows challenges to be discussed with their preceptors. Preceptees get individualised support provided in practice by the preceptor which is a key part of the programme. My goal is to bring the trust’s preceptorship program to the golden standards according to Health Education England and the National Preceptorship Framework 2022.”
As part of developing an environment of belonging within the trust, Soumya has organised ‘meet and greet’ sessions for newly registered nurses at the trust, where nurses can come and meet fellow colleagues, share experiences and network. “My wish is that everyone learns to trust themselves and to understand that we all have different timelines, so don’t be so hard on yourself to win the rat race.”