I was studying philosophy in university when I decided to completely change tack with my career. It was this impulsive, intuitive feeling – where am I going with this? I’d had nurses in my family, and that career path resonated with me: working with people, doing something dynamic and challenging that’s not stuck in an office, a career which has a future where you can really make a difference. That last point was the key for me.
I carry one very early, personal experience in nursing with me every day. My mother was diagnosed with metastatic [incurable] cancer when I was 22, and she was being treated in the hospital where I’d just started work as an oncology nurse. She refused chemotherapy, and I’d see her in my lunch breaks and after my shifts, so going back to work after she died was very tough. That time taught me that it’s so important to listen to a patient, to be in that moment, and that simple gestures of care can be so important.
For nursing to work properly, by which I mean compassionately, you have to have time. People don’t fit into boxes. Because of waiting targets and turnover volumes today, we have to consistently justify time spent on individuals. The hardest thing for me is when operations are cancelled or procedures can’t go ahead, and you have to tell that to a person waiting to hear if their cancer has spread. Not being in control of that is very hard. No amount of training can make up for it.
The demographic being treated by the NHS has changed so much since it began. We have an ageing population now, and so many chronic and long-term illnesses. The templates we have for clinic care are also very archaic: some people need less than five minutes, some people need more. Patient expectation has also risen, which is not a bad thing, but this means care takes longer. Will Brexit affect nursing? I think so. We have a huge vacancy of nurses in England and I work with several nurses from other parts of Europe and further afield. The nursing shortfall is also due to years of short-term planning, so any further shortage will have a ripple effect and repercussions on patient safety.
The best part of my job is the interaction with people. I’m in a position to make a difference to people’s lives every day – that’s very rewarding. My advice to anyone wanting to start out now, though, would be to take your time. There’s a tendency to want to fly to the top of the career ladder straight away, but nothing will replace the expertise I got from the 10 years I spent on wards at the start of my career. We also need to make nursing a more attractive prospect career-wise, and building in much clearer paths for professional development, which nursing doesn’t have in the same way as other medical careers. Recognition is so important too. If staff feel valued, that translates to better patient care, and everyone prospers.
• Life as an NHS nurse in the 1940s: ‘You have to forget about yourself’
