Nursing Beyond the Ward

Today I have cried a few times. I have dealt with many, many children who have come to me purely to avoid their classes but I have seen a handful who have really needed me to be there for them and they have absolutely broken my heart. Six months on I am still finding my feet as a school nurse and my eyes have been completely opened. I work in one of the schools that no middle class white person wants to send their child to. And I have never felt like I am making a difference more than I do now. I cannot believe that in 2019 so many children are living in conditions that I thought had finished in my Nan's lifetime. Children living with their mum and five siblings in a small flat with only the sofa to sleep on. Children who regularly attend school with no food or money to buy it. Children whose parents refuse to collect them when they are bent over in so much pain that they can't walk. Children struggling to adjust to life in foster care. Children who are terrified to tell thei...

After my first brilliant year of working with Ellie and the rest of the team at the surgery we were taken over by a much larger practice. The idea was that we would be a satellite surgery to this one but sadly after about nine months it was announced that our old but cosy little practice was to be closed and our team would join the big one. I was so sad about this but tried to be positive about it by looking to the opportunities that were on offer. After my first month in the new place though, I just knew it wasn’t for me. The nursing team were lovely and were so welcoming and the surgery was very well run, I just felt it lacked personality and the warm atmosphere I’d been used to for fifteen years working in small practices. I also struggled with the predominantly affluent white middle-class patients at this surgery who spent most of the appointment correcting my advice with dodgy information they’d read on an internet forum. I hated this and was tempted to walk out and let them ...

Three years ago this was my post on Facebook (minus the emojis, they are just to protect my friend's details). I was feeling frustrated that not all illnesses are visible, which makes it very difficult during the days when you look "fine" but feel anything but. Rachael is my best friend from school and, when it comes to living with a long term illness, she is my complete inspiration. She has been battling Crohn's disease many years longer than I have my weird type of pneumonia and is a true fighter. I won't share too much about her illness as I'm not sure how much she would like to be public but she has endured years of pain, exhaustion, medical treatments and procedures. And all of this while finishing her degree, starting a career, getting married to her teenage sweetheart, renovating their house and raising their two fabulous boys. And she never moans. She talks her condition through and explains things to me but I have never ever heard her express self-...