Developing every day
Dee's Story
Dee was recently promoted from Tissue Viability Clinical Nurse Specialist to Lead Nurse (Outpatients & Diagnostics) at our Cromwell Hospital. We recently caught up with her to find out more about her journey and how she’s been supported to take that next step.
I’ve worked as a Clinical Nurse Specialist in Tissue Viability at Cromwell Hospital for three years now, taking over leading the team in the past couple of years. This has provided so much opportunity and really supported my development, which has now led me to move into the role of Lead Nurse for Outpatients and Diagnostics.
Working as a Tissue Viability Clinical Nurse Specialist I had a lot of support around me, and still do, we have a group of 12 Link Nurses across the hospital and our team is really close knit, so we can share ideas or speak to the wider specialist teams, clinical forums or consultants if we ever need to.
As a Specialist I have a lot of autonomy and independence in the way I approach patient care, our team has ownership of the service, and as specialists, we’re trusted to make the best decisions for our patients.
Having this autonomy really allowed me to develop my vision for the service and work collaboratively with teams across the hospital to improve care for our patients. In the Tissue Viability service, we work with a wide variety of health professionals as part of a multidisciplinary team. We support and treat patients with different conditions and wound healing challenges. The changing needs of our patients has helped me in continuing my professional development- every patient is different, and I learn something new every day!
I also had the chance to work in different areas, something we all have the opportunity to do, so I got the chance to look at quality and improvement activities, for example being part of the document assurance group and governance committee. Involvement of clinical staff in groups such as these is really encouraged and has really helped broaden my knowledge and understanding of the organisation’s goals and our individual roles in how we achieve them.
Alongside the ongoing development in my day to day role I was also studying for my Masters degree which I have just completed. Now that I’ve moved into a management role I have had the opportunity to apply for one of Bupa’s leadership apprenticeship programmes through CMI to further develop myself and help me build on my management skills. This will support me in ensuring I support my team members in fulfilling their goals and ambitions.
Helping and caring for others is something that I’ve always been passionate about. Working in Tissue Viability, you can make such a difference to peoples’ lives. Seeing the difference, we can make to a persons’ quality of life by supporting them to heal is a feeling you cannot replicate. As a tissue viability service and a hospital, we are passionate about ensuring our customers receive outstanding care and being part of the team that delivers that is really fulfilling.
If you’d like to work for a company that has belief in you to do the right thing and rewards you with trust, autonomy and progression I could not recommend Bupa enough. The nursing leadership team provides fantastic support and as a team, we are really empowered to drive continuous improvement. It is a really exciting time to be a part of the Cromwell family.