Sharon Cassidy

Sharon has been a registered surgical nurse for more than 40 years with a specialty in burns, plastic surgery, and paediatric wound care.

Today, Sharon provides specialist wound care in patients homes, workplaces, private clinics and via telehealth services through SOS Nursing, a service she developed in 2006 to meet a gap in continuity of wound care.

Sharon also works as a paediatric and wound resource nurse at in the Child Health department at Christchurch Hospital and as a Clinical Nurse Specialist for DEBRA NZ where, for the past 14 years, she has cared for Kiwis of all ages with a rare blistering skin condition called Epidermolysis Bullosa.

Sharon is actively involved with a number of wound related groups and is a member of the Christchurch Hospital Wound Governance Group, the Pressure Injury Prevention group, and has PDRP Expert Level.

She is Canterbury’s National representative of the New Zealand Wound Care Society and helps to coordinate education for Canterbury members. She is also a member of the Australia New Zealand Burns Association, NZ Dermatology Nurses Society, College of Child & Youth Nurses, Clinical Nurse Specialist Society New Zealand, and New Zealand Nurses Organisation.

Originally, Sharon trained as an Enrolled Nurse at Christchurch Burwood Hospital 1981 and went on to bridge as a Registered Comprehensive Nurse in 1996. Since then, she has studied further and holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Professional Nursing Practice from Otago Polytechnic in Dunedin, a NZ Diploma in Business, and a certificate in Te Ara Reo Maori (Level 2) at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa.

Sharon is the recipient of two prestigious nursing awards from the NZ Nurses Organisation which included the Margaret May Blackwell Travel & Study Fellowship in 2014, which funded her travel nationally and internationally to advance her practice in Epidermolysis Bullosa, burns, and pressure injuries.

In 2018 she won an Australian global wound challenge with wound care company Coloplast and was one of eight worldwide recipients’ flown to Denmark to present a case on diagnosing and resolving a lower leg wound.

Sharon has presented at many national and international conferences including the1st International Symposium Pediatric Wound Care in Rome in 2011, the Australia New Zealand Burn's Association Conference in Perth in 2013, and the International Dermatology Conference in Singapore in 2018. More recently, Sharon led the New Zealand Wound Care Society and ACC Wound Awareness Week 2021 on Prevention and Care of Burns & Scalds. Sharon has co-authored papers published in the journal ‘Burns’ on trials with Keratin wound products in 2016. She has co-authored a book for children ‘About Going to Hospital’, along with other online resources published by the Christchurch Hospital to help alleviate stress and anxiety for children in hospital in situations, including; having a plaster cast, an operation, and having an x-ray. These resources won a quality innovation award from the Canterbury District Health Board Quality & Patient Safety Council in 2003. Sharon is excited about being involved with ACEhub so she can share her knowledge with others and ultimately help improve patient care.