Nursing Beyond the Ward

After practice nursing for eleven years I was starting to feel like I needed a new challenge. I'd seen a real change since 2004, with the job becoming increasingly target-based, so I was keeping an eye out for something I thought would suit me. In January 2015 I stumbled across an organisation called Parish Nursing UK. I had no idea what it was so I arranged to spend a day with a local nurse who was already working in this field. Parish Nursing UK was set up in 2004 and is run through churches. Its aim is to complement work done by the NHS by providing holistic care, advocacy, signposting to other care providers and support to people of all faiths and none. I really liked the sound of it and the idea of spending time in a less hurried way with patients appealed to me greatly.  It turned out that the same church that had recruited me to look after Ida in 1997 was looking for a senior care co-ordinator. They wanted someone to take care of the elderly in the church and thos...

Working as a practice nurse giving one-to-one care means that you get to know your patients and for the most part this is a lovely side of the job. I used to routinely see Beatrice, a tiny old lady who spoke even better English than the Queen, Geoffrey, a lovely old gent who dressed and spoke like he was still in the RAF and Gerry who was once a window cleaner. Gerry told me that he used to clean windows for a married lady in a very nice house who once invited him in. I asked if he'd accepted her invitation and he casually replied 'Yes I did and we made love on the rug in front of the fire'. He then shared with me his opinion that everybody looks better with clothes on. Maybe the rich married woman wasn't that hot underneath her designer outfit! I always enjoyed chatting with these patients while I changed their dressings. As I said, for the most part this side of practice nursing is lovely but there are some regular patients who are just plain weird.  I used to s...

After my first eight months working as a practice nurse I received a phone call from another surgery asking if I'd like to work for them. I was really happy working with Breeda and the team so I politely turned the offer down a couple of times. The practice manager was persistent though and kept phoning me - even at work! After a few weeks of consideration I decided to go for the interview to see what they were offering, which turned out to be more money and a five minute drive instead of thirty. It was a tricky decision but I took it. It was a shame to leave such a lovely team and, in hindsight, I'm always slightly sad that I did. But the next job worked out well for me too. My role was split between two surgeries so that I could get the hours I wanted. One doctor was a very studious Chinese man who wore a face mask at ALL times for fear of deadly germs. His patients always found this rude! The second doctor was a gentle, quiet man from Kashmir, who I would end up working for ...