My nursing story

So it's the Year of the Nurse and Midwife and, in my opinion, long overdue! So thank you to Nursing Now and all who have made this possible.

For me, nursing wasn't my first choice. It was, in fact, children's social work! Brought up by selfless giving and caring parents, who were foster carers to hundreds, I knew my future lay in attempting to somehow also contribute to ensuring children were surrounded by good care to enable them to flourish and grow.

For many reasons, social work training didn't quite work out for me and so, after a rethink and reboot (and extra hours sharing in the wisdom of the mature clients at my student job in the bingo hall), I took to nursing. I trained as a State Registered Nurse in South Tees, and to this day, am so very grateful for the experiences and learning I was offered. In particular, my community placements with the midwife and district nurse were to ever shape my future career. Nursing in areas of high need, addressing challenging health issues within clinic settings, people's homes and in some very ‘odd’ other places, more than filled my boots and my soul!