Nursing at the Tavistock and Portman

Nurses in our Trust are highly experienced and work in a range of teams.

Sai Kadirrajah

Clinical nurse specialist, eating difficulties and ARFID (avoidant restrictive food intake disorder) service

My name is Sai and I am currently a CAMHS Nurse working within EDAS (Eating Difficulties and ARFID Service). I graduated as a mental health nurse from King’s College London in 2020 and I began my career at the Coborn Centre. This was a psychiatric inpatient service for adolescents and I worked between an acute ward and a PICU (Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit). I thoroughly enjoyed my time there especially as I was working constantly throughout COVID – so I was glad I was still able to physically go into work and help really vulnerable patients and see my colleagues.

I then moved to the Tavi in 2021 to join the CAISS (Camden Adolescent Intensive Support Service) team and made a change to work in a community mental health setting. The CAISS team has taught me so much as an individual and really helped shape my skills, career pathways and aspirations as it was a nurse-led team. Working in the community, even in my role in EDAS, as a nurse there is a lot of scope for how interesting, creative, fun, yet challenging my practice can be. As a nurse I always feel like I am doing a combination of things to help meet the needs of young people and their mental health. This includes formulating their difficulties, assessing risk, giving them an individual space – formally and informally, using psycho-social interventions, completing outreach, monitoring their physical health — when necessary —  supporting their families, holding the network around them together, overseeing the technical side of the service, helping them achieve their potential, and essentially just being there for them.

I have always loved working in CAMHS and could not see myself working anywhere else as I love young people. I look forward to progressing in my roles, accomplishing new challenges, and reaching new heights whilst remaining a nurse throughout the rest of my career – as there is no other occupation I would rather have.

Claire Shaw

Consultant nurse

I have worked as a Consultant Nurse in the Trust for several years. My role involves aspects of nursing leadership, training and development, and I’ve also undertaken service evaluations looking at the impact of our courses. I’m interested in reflective practice and how we support frontline staff in health and social care through developing reflective spaces and an understanding of relevant theoretical concepts.

I lead on the ‘Facilitating Reflective Practice Groups’ course and am often involved in the delivery, working with teams across the country, something I very much enjoy. I have also recently taken on the ‘Nursing Training Development Lead’ role and am hoping this will enable us to develop our offering to nurses both locally within the Integrated Care System but also nationally. It is a tall order in the current context but is something I feel very committed to and feel that there are opportunities for us to be creative and responsive to nurses’ needs. It is a pleasure to be part of the nursing professional group at the Trust, I feel we are both well connected and well supported despite being a relatively small group of staff.

Siziwe Bhebhe

Locum mental health nurse, gender identity clinic

I am a newly recruited locum Mental Health Nurse for the Gender Identity Clinic having joined in February 2023. I have been qualified for 20 years and I am registered as a Specialist Practitioner in Mental Health by the Nursing and Midwifery Council. I became a ward manager within four years of qualifying in an adult female ward for borderline personality disorder

I have worked with a variety of client groups over the years including medium secure, low secure, adults, CAMHS, Community Single Point of Access, community youth offenders and most recently the Crisis Team CAMHS as a service manager (Locum). I worked with patients with gender incongruence in almost all these settings and I’m excited to be here at the Tavi at this point in my career.

Although most of my roles have been operational management, I am also trained in a few therapy models like solution focused therapy, systemic work and mentalisation-based therapy, which I think have helped in my roles and will also help me at the Tavi.

Robert Stocker-Rodrigues

Clinical nurse specialist, endocrine team, gender identity clinic

As part of a multidisciplinary team I contribute to the care pathway of transgender, non-binary and gender diverse patients, primarily by screening referrals and baseline blood tests, assessing and reviewing patients in clinic, coordinating care and liaising with GPs to monitor and manage hormone therapy. It is a dynamic role and requires a holistic approach, and partnership working. I enjoy working with, and advocating for this patient group.