People's History of the NHS

I qualified as a nurse in the mid 90’s and have worked in the NHS for most of my career.

Whilst growing up my mother spent a lot of time in & out of hospital as she had end stage renal failure and I often watched the doctors and nurses looking after her. There was a particular nurse who looked after mum and she inspired me so much I left my teacher training to commence my nurse training. I did my nurse training at the Sister Dora Hospital in Walsall. I decided to focus on paediatrics (children’s nursing).

I have had many roles in the NHS over the years of which include; staff nurse in acute settings, senior staff nurse in both community and acute settings, a nursing sister in a special school, a specialist practitioner in community children’s nursing, a sickle cell and thalassaemia specialist nurse, a directorate lead nurse, Deputy Head of Quality Governance and more recently working for Macmillan Cancer support. I am also a Care Quality Commission Specialist Advisor & a Trustee for Age UK

I still feel very passionate about the NHS and the work that nurses do to provide quality compassionate care. The NHS has evolved over the years in many different forms however I do believe that these constant changes have had an impact on how the NHS is perceived by the public, the media reporting and the varying cultures across different organisations.

I do still believe that as nurses we join the profession to make a difference to those who need us at their most vulnerable moments in whatever role we do and we strive to achieve this through any challenges that we face.