Paul’s story

I had always wanted to be a nurse, but unfortunately, didn’t get the grades in school. But after many different jobs in many different places, I found my way into the NHS in 2008, as a support worker in the cardiothoracic high dependency unit at my local hospital. On my induction, I had a chance meeting with an education sister on the ward and told her about my dream job. And after four years of working, part time BTECs, NVQs and an Access course, I was accepted into university and started my journey towards becoming a nurse.

I qualified in 2015, and after almost 4 years working in intensive care, I joined the Therapeutic Apheresis Service (TAS) as a Quality Specialist Nurse on April Fool’s Day 2019 (a pure coincidence). I quickly saw that, aside from dozens of Outlook calendars and far too many Excel spreadsheets, all aspects of our treatments were, and still are, 100% reliant on paper! Although that system works, it was clear there was huge potential for improvements to patient care, colleague satisfaction, and both time and cost efficiencies. I’m a massive geek, and it seemed a great opportunity to bring those skills into nursing!

I presented some ideas to the senior management team, and then went on to complete a 9-month secondment role as Lead Nurse for Health Informatics. And I’m so pleased to say this brought about a national project, looking at how we can bring technology into our work to improve the service.

This service improvement project led me into applying for, and being awarded, a new role within the Quality and Governance department. I now work to make sure all our patients and donors receive safe and high-quality care, by maintaining and developing governance, quality, regulatory, research and audit systems on a national basis.

My nursing career has taken some twists and turns, and I now find myself in a speciality I didn’t even know existed a few years ago. I really enjoy my role and being involved in the improvement of the service for all patients, donors, and my colleagues. It just goes to show that it’s never too late to follow your dreams and start down a new career path!