About me

• Nurse Practitioner at Drac ac Arth Ltd
• Studied: Dip HE Community Health, Health Visiting (1993)

About my career

I studied as an independent student (that is without Health Authority sponsorship) as I had been made redundant from the Health Service from my previous post as a Sister in Learning Disabilities. My own Health Visitor suggested I would make a good Health Visitor. I loved the course and afterwards started working as a Health Visitor in Bootle, Liverpool.

I worked as a Health Visitor for eleven years, before I returned to nursing in 2005 as the Practice Nurse at the surgery where I was formerly the Health Visitor in the Wirral. I stayed there until the GP retired. Since then, I have moved around a lot developing my skills and experience, taught, and worked in clinical practice. Currently I am visiting lecturer in Nursing at Chester University and I do some locum nursing work still in general practice as either Nurse Practitioner or Practice Nurse.

The Dip HE course made me ask questions about the way things were which provoked an lifelong interest in research. This led onto to my doing firstly a level three counselling course at Manchester Victoria University, then an MSc in Health Research and Promotion at Liverpool John Moores, an MTh in Applied Theology at Liverpool and a PhD at Birmingham. I have undertaken paid community health research and review nursing textbooks for one of the professional journals, and have trained as a counsellor in addition to nursing. I believe in the centrality of spirituality to wellness, but that we cannot function as a healthy individual in an unhealthy community - and have spent time examining the factors that lead to community breakdown, and the signs that mark community restoration or health. The questioning attitude that the Dip HE provoked has, of course, been a double-edged sword in some instances, but has ultimately led to changes in the way practices have run - notably in taking one “Darzi” practice from the worst performing in the PCT to the best inside twelve months.

We had to undertake placements as part of the health visiting course. My first was in town centre St. Helens and the second in a suburb. I feel that it is vital that students undertake placements to gain real world experience of their chosen careers and gain confidence in putting theory into practice - and also in identifying those occasions where the theory doesn’t seem to fit.

I am about to go back to university to undertake a PG Dip in Chaplaincy Studies and I have a placement in an FE chaplaincy team from September. My husband (a GP) and I have an independent company to deal with our various streams of erratic income: Drac ac Arth (Dragon and Bear).

My top tip for students is

Be yourself and be honest.

I am inspired by

My patients, students, and clients. I always describe my vocation as that of walking alongside others until they no longer need me to do so.

Why I love Manchester Met

I made a lifelong friend while at Manchester Met and one of my Professors I remained in touch with for many years until she retired. But it was really the fact that my time at university opened my eyes that I appreciated most. It inspired me to learn and to ask questions and I will be forever grateful for that.

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