Career profile

Why did you become a nurse?

For as long as I can remember I wanted to be a nurse, and recall as a four year old praying 'please God make me a nurse missionary'. I love working with people and am really interested in people's stories.

How has your career developed since you started nursing?

Immediately after qualifying as a nurse in 1982, I spent six months working in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo, in a remote mission station. Soon after, I married and began midwifery training. On completion children quickly came along, (or Part three of midwifery, as my husband called it) and I took a career break until they were all at school. I had tried for some time to access a midwifery refresher course, but despite my attempts, in those days, I could not work part-time as a midwife to complete my three months refresher training, so I returned to general nursing. I undertook a Return to Practice course and worked in a local private hospital, until I switched to the community. I moved into general practice in 1999, and have been working there ever since. At that time, it was difficult to access a specific practice nursing qualification, so I tried to obtain the necessary training to equip me to work as a practice nurse. It was a steep learning curve initially, but I went on to complete a distance learning Diploma level qualification and then moved on to an MSc in Primary Care through the Postgraduate Medical School at Surrey University. This included the nurse prescribing qualification.