Step 1 : Find a friend

Sharing stories of my ride of working in healthcare, starts with training to be a nurse.

I often say I’m not sure if I picked nursing or if nursing picked me. Either way. It started in 1992 and I qualified as a Registered Nurse in 1995. Pre-university courses, I was hospital trained and gained a certificate. From there I’ve had to date 14 different roles in 2 countries. This is that story and it starts with a friend.

The picture below is me with my wonderful friend at our last reunion. We first met many years ago when we started nurse training together and have been firm friends ever since.

My first job when I qualified as a registered nurse in 1995 was in a cardiology ward and coronary care unit. The ward was next to the intensive care unit and also took the discharges from there. So a lot of sick people, a lot of cardiac arrests and a fair bit of death.

These were the days of thrombolysis and patients had at least 2 days in bed after suffering a heart attack, with a total length of stay of around a week. Times have changed indeed.

It was a ward with a really experienced team and I learnt loads. Despite the skill mix, there would still be days where it would be me and my friend and the 28 patients. The healthcare assistants taught us loads (and continued to do so) and were an integral part of the high standards of care.

It's true what they say that you really start learning when you first qualify. I soaked it up. I loved it. I thought I'd never ever learn it all (and never did). I started my postgraduate diploma and my first course was on quality standards in healthcare - the quality aspect has been a theme throughout my career so it's funny to look back and remember that first step of post-qualification learning. I wrote a standard of care for chest pain assessment and this was my first throw at engaging a team in changing practice, communicating a different way to do something and auditing practice.