'It's amazing working with my family' - Six relatives follow in footsteps of sisters who joined Bradford Hospitals as nurses in 2003

Despite being five years apart in age, Clinical Site Matron Meena, 53, and younger sister, Renal Matron Raz, 49, started their nurse training together in 2000 at Bradford University. Upon graduation, they joined the trust, which operates both the Bradford Royal Infirmary (BRI) and St Luke’s Hospital, and have been working there ever since.

Raz says: “We graduated together with nursing degrees which was a very proud day for our parents, started work together on the same day in 2003 – Meena as a staff nurse on one of the acute medical wards at the BRI and me as a renal nurse at St Luke’s – and became matrons together. We are the first generation to go into nursing in our family. We’ve been at the trust for 22 years now and we absolutely love our jobs.”

Meena typically works night shifts these days, ensuring the smooth running of a patient’s journey from admission to discharge, from the trust’s command centre. “I’ve worked up to where I am now, I manage a big team but they aren’t just colleagues, they are more like family,” she says. “It’s a great place to work and it’s absolutely amazing working with my family. We bump into each other, have a coffee together now and then, but we work professionally together as we are colleagues first and foremost when we are working. We are all really proud to work for the NHS.”

In recent years the pair have been joined by Meena’s two daughters, Aneeka Bashir, 30 and Chand Uzair, 26, who both work on the switchboard. Aneeka, a law graduate, works day shifts as a temporary switchboard operator after her mum encouraged her to join the trust.

Chand, a student nurse, has worked part-time every weekend for the last eight years. She hopes to gain full-time employment with the trust after she graduates but has yet to decide what specialty she wants to work in. Chand says: “I was very poorly as a child with asthma and I used to spend time on the children’s ward. I was always having asthma attacks so was in hospital for two weeks at a time, so I witnessed at first-hand what the nurses did and they inspired me to give something back."

Meena and Raz’s cousin, Svara Razak, has also worked at the trust for nearly 15 years, and is now ward manager on the BRI’s elective surgical ward. “Meena, Raz and I are first cousins – our mums are sisters – so we have grown up together,” Svara says. “I qualified in 2009 and my cousins have both supported me throughout my career, helping with interview techniques and advice regarding job development...It’s reassuring to work with your family because you’ve always got support there. I look up to them and ask them for advice and guidance if I need it.”

Svara’s sister-in-law, Shamima Akhtar, is a stroke responder nurse on the stroke unit, having worked at the trust for 25 years while Svara’s cousin, Nyla Hussain is an Emergency Department Nurse Practitioner, who joined the trust in 2000.

Two years ago, Meena and Raz were also joined by their sister-in-law, deputy general manager of anaesthetics, theatres and critical care, Noreen Rashid, who is married to their brother, Nawaz. Noreen’s daughter Romessa Nawaz also works as physician associate on the acute medical unit. Romessa, who has worked at the trust for nearly seven years, says: “I enjoy my job as it is fast-paced and no two days or two patients are the same.”

Meena’s niece, Healthcare Assistant, Aminah Hussain has also been working at the trust for three years now.

Professor Mel Pickup is chief executive of the trust. She says: “Since its inception there have been many instances where multiple family members have worked for the NHS or have a family history of working here in Bradford at one of our hospitals.

“It highlights how an organisation like ours can feel like a close-knit community, with family traditions of service, and how relatives and one family’s care within the NHS can span multiple generations.”