You might be at the beginning of your working life, or already on a career path and wondering what is next for you, there are always points in our life when we start to consider our choices on where we want to be in the next few years.
There seems to be a popular view that to be successful we decide on a career or vocation and follow a clearly laid out path. This starts at secondary school in the UK when we decide which subjects we are going want to or considered capable enough to study. This can start us on a path we feel we have little control over. First off we are either academic or vocational, arts oriented or science oriented. These early choices can start us on a path that can feel pre-ordained, by our social standing, family culture and perception of our intelligence to name but a few. This all before we are 16! For some people this works out well, they are able to make choices that suite who they are and they thrive. You might be that person, for the first 20 years of my career I would have agreed with you.
Academically I was average, I was not considered very artistic or any good with my hands. I was kind and enjoyed helping people. When I was 16 I decided I wanted to be a Nurse. Most of my friends were set on an academic path of going to University, I felt I wanted to be part of that crowd, I did not come from an academic family so I was never socialised to studying for academic success. My mum was really encouraging but she had never had experience of studying so I was never challenged to work harder. I realised quite early on that I did not have the personal discipline to study to the level needed to pass my A levels, I just did not have the motivation. I liked the idea of going to University but I was not prepared to do the work to get there. I knew I could be a Nurse without going to University. To register as a Nurse then you did not have to study for a degree, you could do a 3 year course that qualified you to be registered with UKCC as a Registered General Nurse, or do a 2 year course and become an Enrolled Nurse. The entry requirement for Registered General Nurse training was 5 ‘O’ Levels including Maths, English and a Science. I had that so I decided to not to try that hard and have a good time in 6th Form instead. I was accepted on to 3 courses one at Liverpool Royal Infirmary, one at the Queens Medical Centre in Nottingham and one at Hull Royal Infirmary. The course in Hull started first so I started in Hull in October 1989.
I loved being a Nurse, I didn’t really enjoy the academic work (thankfully there was not a great deal of that). I loved caring for people, I loved the excitement of caring for really sick people and I loved building relationships with people. In my 3rd year of training I did my Paediatric placement on Ward 130 West at Hull Royal Infirmary. I loved Nursing children, it was full of challenges, it was fun at times and heart breaking at other times. When I qualified I got a job on the Children’s unit and worked on Ward 12 which was the Children’s ENT and Ophthalmic ward. The condition of working on the Children’s Unit was getting accepted on and completing the Children’s Nurse qualification. So initially I was given a 12 month contract as a D Grade Staff Nurse. I was then accepted onto the RSCN (Registered Sick Children’s Nurse) course in Hull. This was a 14 month course so I was given a 14 month contract which would become permanent on successful completion of the course. I hated the RSCN course. I loved Nursing the children and working on different wards and settings where children were cared for, but I hated all the academic work. With the help of my tutor Jeremy I managed to qualify (by the skin of my teeth). I qualified as a Children’s Nurse in March 1995 and started work as a Staff Nurse on Ward 130 East the Surgical, and essentially trauma ward as we admitted, orthopaedics and neurosurgery patients. We would often look after children following road traffic accidents. During this time we looked after a lot of children with multiple fractures and major injuries as well as children with brain tumours requiring neurosurgery. As well as this we would look after children having general surgery (appendicectomies etc.), Plastic Surgery, Maxiofacial, ENT, and Ophthalmic surgery. To say the least it was an incredibly challenging and interesting place to work. There was a huge amount to learn. In 1997 I decided to leave Paediatrics and go and work in ICU. At times I felt out of my depth looking after really sick Children, so I decided to get more experience in Critical Care so I dropped down a grade and went to work on ICU. I spent a year working there. I looked after Children and Adults whilst I was there, but I found I missed caring Children so went back to the Children’s wards, and got a post as an E Grade Staff Nurse on 130 West (Paediatric Medicine). I loved working on West, this was the ward where it all started as a 3rd Year Student Nurse. In 1999 I got a Senior Staff Nurse post on West, everything was going really well. In 2001 the Children’s unit opened a High Dependency Unit and I got one of the Senior Staff roles. It was a fantastic year working there, I learned a lot and had such a great time. Then in 2002 the ward Sister on 130 West retired and I applied for and was successful in getting the Charge Nurse job on 130 West. At that time I thought I had secured my dream job. I was the manager of the ward that I loved. It turned out to be far from that.
In hindsight I was not ready to be a Charge Nurse. Clinically I was very capable and was comfortable managing the care of most patients that we would see right across the Children’s unit, including patients that we didn’t come across such as Children requiring critical care. What I was not prepared for was being a manager of a fast moving ward with competing demands. I spent most of the 11 years I managed the ward under a lot of scrutiny and pressure to perform. When I first wrote about mu experience as a ward manager my emotions were still quite raw and I was quite negative about the whole experience, however if it was not for those 11 years I would not be doing what I am doing now. That time was difficult personally and that had an effect on how I performed as a leader. It is important to recognise that life events will always have an impact on all parts of your life, and it is impossible to shield one part of your life from the other. During my time as a Charge Nurse I completed a post graduate diploma in Leadership and Management (not too bad for someone who was never a graduate) and discovered Clinical Supervision and my skill in communicating with people and building relationships.
After my decade or so as a Charge Nurse I moved to a development role and became the Teacher Practitioner (Clinical Nurse Educator)for the Children’s Unit. To be honest this was right up my street. I supported the Safeguarding Children Team in developing their supervision training. I found that I loved writing guidelines and putting together training packages. I developed an induction programme for new registrants and started to align guidelines and development with the rest of the hospital. For a year I worked one day a week at the University supporting undergraduate education (so I eventually got to University). Being a Nurse educator allowed me to build supportive relationships with Nurses. I wasn’t caring for patients but I was caring for Nurses instead. This job also gave me freedom to explore how I could be useful and support the development of Nurses across the Trust. I started to get involved with Human Factors training and worked with our simulation team and the Paediatricians on Human Factors training for Paediatric Doctors and Nurses across the region. I introduced Human Factors training into Nursing Induction across the trust and started spending more and more time collaborating with Nurse Educators across the Trust. It was around this time that I heard about coaching and met Lucy (my now boss) and I completed a coaching qualification. For me this was the final piece that I needed. It increased my self awareness and enhanced my skills in communicating with people. Just supporting Nurses was not enough for me know. If I was going to use my core values of Courage and Usefulness I needed to shift my career.
Lucy offered me 2days a week on a 12 month secondment, helping to develop a Coaching and Mentoring Network. That turned into a permanent part-time job that I juggled with my Nurse Educator role and eventually in 2019 (30 years to the day after I started my Nurse training) I took the plunge and left Nursing for good and became a Senior Organisational Development Practitioner fulltime. I came off the register completely. This was a really big moment for me, being a Nurse had become an integral part of how saw myself. In reality I was never a Nurse, I was Matt whose job was a Children’s Nurse. I am not Matt whose job is Head of Organisational Development. As Brene Brown says and I repeat on a regular basis. You are not what you do. Allowing myself to follow my values and do a job that allows me to consistently work with those values was a game changer. Being a Staff Nurse allowed me to be Useful and Courageous whilst being caring, compassionate and empathetic, I was not always able to work consistently in that space as a Charge Nurse and I felt compromised on a regular basis, as a Nurse Educator I could live with values, but when I discovered I could increase my scope and have an impact on a larger scale it was a no brainer. This job I have now allows me to live with my values every moment of everyday, I can support and care for the team I manage and directly support and care for all the teams and individuals I work with across our whole Group. It is important to recognise that working in the NHS at the moment is the most challenging it is has ever been during my career, however I am still in my job able to consistently work in values.
It is so important to identify your core values and use them as a guide for all you do. There are a lot of values exercises available online. If you want to understand your values more please feel free to contact me to discuss how we can work together.
Connected Coaching 