Pixy Helen Strazds BA(Hons), NMP, Grad Cert IPC, RN(A)

Profile

 Pixy is a confident Senior Clinical Leader, who has successfully delivered safe and quality health care in both the NHS and private sector prison health care, focusing on the delivery of patient outcomes, safe, and high quality practice and supporting colleagues to deliver patient and person centred care.  Extensive experience in communication at all levels, strategic leadership, vision, innovation, complex analysis, influencing, negotiation and creativity in a complex service.  Experienced in working with hard to reach and vulnerable patient groups, using innovative and creative approaches to reach and provide care to patients.

Pixy started her nursing career as student nurse at St James School of Nursing and qualified from University of Leeds in January 2000, she went on to work in surgical nursing at the Royal Surrey and Doncaster Royal Infirmary where her interest in Infection Prevention and Control was sparked leading to a secondment to the IPC team 2009-2010.

Pixy then commenced on her journey in IPC and mental health at Nottinghamshire Healthcare (2010) and then to G4S (2019) and to Deputy Director IPC at St Andrews healthcare in 2020.

During her career she has completed many educational modules including Graduate Certificate IPC (2011) and BA (Hons) (2015). Her educational journey continued with Non-Medical prescribing (2018) and is on track to complete MSc IPC in 2023.

Pixy joined the Infection Prevention Society (IPS) in 2014 and has held various roles within the IPS including Branch Co-ordinator Trent and Mental Health special interest group.  This led to Pixy becoming Honorary Secretary and Trustee of the society 2020-2022.  Pixy was awarded lifetime honorary membership in 2022 for her service and dedication to IPS.

Pixy’s dedication to IPC in secure environments and her passion to have the voice heard of non acute settings heard to policy and guidance makers led to her speaking at local, national and international conferences and representing these settings on various national working groups.  Her work on BBV screening was published in 2019, and is currently aiming to have another article published on outbreak management in 2023.

Publications

Journal Of Infection Prevention April 2019  https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1757177419833162?journalCode=bjib

Best piece of advice ever given:

“It doesn’t matter where you came from or where you end up it’s what you do on the journey that matters.”