Nursing has been my life.
From my experience as very young child undergoing multiple orthopaedic operations, I knew I wanted to be a nurse.
I joined St John ’s Ambulance as a youngster to get closer to my dream and when I was 17 with a clutch of O levels in my hand, I applied for nurse training. (These days O levels are called GCSEs). I left Grammar school at 17 because my careers teacher had told me that after gaining 9 O levels, it would be a waste of a good education to go into nursing. So, I left. At that time, many careers’ teachers were advising pupils who wanted to train as a nurse to study cookery, informing pupils that more academic subjects were not necessary. How wrong they were. Years later I was an admissions tutor at a university, and I put those schoolteachers straight by letting them know what subjects were suitable for nurse training. Nurses need a knowledge of anatomy and physiology, pharmacology, psychology, and sociology. They need to develop very sophisticated people skills. They need to be able to appraise evidence and make decisions based on that evidence. In addition, they need to be able to assess a patient’s nursing needs and to provide and evaluate that care. It has changed now, and careers teachers are more informed.
After my interview for nurse training, I was disappointed when they told me that I wouldn’t be accepted because of my orthopaedic condition. Now my mother had come with me to the interview. I was crushed. It was my dream. Mine was a typical Welsh Mam. She was tiny but fearless as far as her children were concerned. She went back into the interview room to have a chat with the panel. I have no idea what was said in there, but the sister tutor came back and said that if my orthopaedic surgeon would sign me off, I would be accepted. My Welsh Mam came with me to see the orthopaedic surgeon who, unsurprisingly signed me off. My Mam made sure he knew that to be a nurse was my life’s dream. He signed me off. The rest is History. That was 50 years ago next February.
So primarily, Nursing is to me a dream come true. I have lived the dream for almost 50 years. To be honest, it didn’t always feel like that when my feet hurt, and my back ached; when I spent Christmas after Christmas working and a small child at home or when staff shortages made me worried about the standard of care.
But it was never the patients who made me feel down. Patients were always my inspiration and source of power. Power to keep going and to want to do my best. Patients constantly fuelled my desire to remain a nurse.
As my career took me away from the bedside into education and research, I held firm to the belief that I was influencing patient care whether that was through educating the next generation of nurses or writing policy documents that would lead to improvements in care. I was influencing patient care through my new and different responsibilities.
Sometimes, when you think, what does it mean to be a nurse – vital signs, drug rounds, changing dressings and so on – that’s what quickly comes to mind. But being a nurse is so much more. It means compassion and patience, empathy, and sensitivity. It means being there for a total stranger at all hours of the day and all hours of the night. It’s the ability to keep a patient’s loved ones calm even in the most stressful situations.
And
All this is combined with consummate technical skills and professionalism.
I have had a varied career and travelled the world in my role as clinician, nurse tutor and researcher. I am now coming to the end of my professional career. I am currently the chair of Velindre University NHS Trust where, I have yet to meet a nurse who didn’t possess these qualities.
The dream continues.
From my experience as very young child undergoing multiple orthopaedic operations, I knew I wanted to be a nurse.
I joined St John ’s Ambulance as a youngster to get closer to my dream and when I was 17 with a clutch of O levels in my hand, I applied for nurse training. (These days O levels are called GCSEs). I left Grammar school at 17 because my careers teacher had told me that after gaining 9 O levels, it would be a waste of a good education to go into nursing. So, I left. At that time, many careers’ teachers were advising pupils who wanted to train as a nurse to study cookery, informing pupils that more academic subjects were not necessary. How wrong they were. Years later I was an admissions tutor at a university, and I put those schoolteachers straight by letting them know what subjects were suitable for nurse training. Nurses need a knowledge of anatomy and physiology, pharmacology, psychology, and sociology. They need to develop very sophisticated people skills. They need to be able to appraise evidence and make decisions based on that evidence. In addition, they need to be able to assess a patient’s nursing needs and to provide and evaluate that care. It has changed now, and careers teachers are more informed.
After my interview for nurse training, I was disappointed when they told me that I wouldn’t be accepted because of my orthopaedic condition. Now my mother had come with me to the interview. I was crushed. It was my dream. Mine was a typical Welsh Mam. She was tiny but fearless as far as her children were concerned. She went back into the interview room to have a chat with the panel. I have no idea what was said in there, but the sister tutor came back and said that if my orthopaedic surgeon would sign me off, I would be accepted. My Welsh Mam came with me to see the orthopaedic surgeon who, unsurprisingly signed me off. My Mam made sure he knew that to be a nurse was my life’s dream. He signed me off. The rest is History. That was 50 years ago next February.
So primarily, Nursing is to me a dream come true. I have lived the dream for almost 50 years. To be honest, it didn’t always feel like that when my feet hurt, and my back ached; when I spent Christmas after Christmas working and a small child at home or when staff shortages made me worried about the standard of care.
But it was never the patients who made me feel down. Patients were always my inspiration and source of power. Power to keep going and to want to do my best. Patients constantly fuelled my desire to remain a nurse.
As my career took me away from the bedside into education and research, I held firm to the belief that I was influencing patient care whether that was through educating the next generation of nurses or writing policy documents that would lead to improvements in care. I was influencing patient care through my new and different responsibilities.
Sometimes, when you think, what does it mean to be a nurse – vital signs, drug rounds, changing dressings and so on – that’s what quickly comes to mind. But being a nurse is so much more. It means compassion and patience, empathy, and sensitivity. It means being there for a total stranger at all hours of the day and all hours of the night. It’s the ability to keep a patient’s loved ones calm even in the most stressful situations.
And
All this is combined with consummate technical skills and professionalism.
I have had a varied career and travelled the world in my role as clinician, nurse tutor and researcher. I am now coming to the end of my professional career. I am currently the chair of Velindre University NHS Trust where, I have yet to meet a nurse who didn’t possess these qualities.
The dream continues.
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