Rachael Skates Infection Prevention Control Lead South East Coast Ambulance Service (SECAmb) Shift: Sickness to Prevention

Rachael Skates has always known what she wanted to be. She began her nurse training in March 1986, driven by a lifelong commitment to kindness and compassion, values that have shaped every step of a remarkable career spanning nearly four decades.

Today, as Infection Prevention Control Lead at South East Coast Ambulance Service, Rachael leads a team providing expert guidance, oversight and assurance on infection prevention practices across the Trust. She monitors and interprets key performance indicators, works in partnership with clinical and operational teams, and plays a central role in embedding best practice, from effective hand hygiene and appropriate use of PPE to the early identification and isolation of infectious risks.

Her work is fundamentally preventative. Rather than waiting for healthcare-associated infections to occur and then responding, Rachael and her team work proactively with staff to stop transmission before it starts, protecting patients, colleagues and the wider communities SECAmb serves.

That preventative ambition is reflected in one of the team’s most innovative achievements: an award-winning A-Z of Infections App, developed to support staff knowledge and education about infections and the appropriate PPE for each situation. By putting accessible, accurate information directly in clinicians’ hands, the app enables faster, more informed decision-making, shifting the culture from reactive to proactive.

A Queen’s Nurse and proud NHS professional, Rachael describes the organisation as a lifelong family. And her connection to the NHS runs deeper than most, her great, great uncle, Archibald Lush, was a personal friend of NHS founder Aneurin Bevan.

Nearly 40 years on from that first day of nurse training, her passion for caring for people at their most vulnerable has never dimmed.