Career Profile- Jackie Hodgetts Nurse Clinician in Melanoma at The Christie Hospital and Trustee at Melanoma Focus.

Why did you become a nurse?

After my A levels when I was deciding what career path to take, I knew I wanted to do something medical. I didn’t want to go to university, so I got my first job as a lab trainee technician that was attached to a ward, and I found I was curious about patients, and I wasn’t happy to just churn results out without knowing what the background was. I had already applied to nursing then, but I knew at that point it was the right way to go.

How did you start your career?

My first job was in accident and emergency, and I was a sister there for five years. When I worked in A&E, we did a lot of clinical trials and I found research really interesting, so I had my children and then looked to go back to work. I looked for jobs in research and I got one at The Christie, which is where I am now, as a research nurse. Initially working with patients looking at quality of life and then on more of a medical role working with lung cancer patients and then eventually melanoma patients. I did that for several years and then in 2007 I did a master’s degree in Advanced Practice. It was very scientific but very patient focused as well. I did that degree with the view to go into the role of a melanoma nurse.