A New World

I remember thinking I would be bored in General Paeds. I seriously worried I would find the pace too slow. Boredom is not a word I use to describe my experiences on the Children's Ward !

This lovely little ward gave me time to breath. I was able to grow as a nurse and really expand my leadership skills-something up until this point I had never done. After a year I applied for a Clinical Nurse position and was successful. This is turn allowed me to undertake the Nurse Unit Manager position for a year covering maternity leave. It was a unique experience for me and one I had never really considered doing before.

The team was small but hard working. We had our share of challenges and some staff were non to happy with my appointment as NUM - the thought of a relative 'newcomer' taking the job did not sit well. It was a new challenge for me and I worked really hard to gain trust. Sometimes you just have to be 'time served' and just prove yourself. The majority of staff were supportive and even some of my most vocal opponents turned out to be the most supportive allies when all was said and done.

I enlisted the help of the senior staff and tried to bring about some positive change. Not only clinically but I also tried to improve the culture of the unit. We implemented the 'FISH' philosophy based on the idea that its OK to have fun at work. You can still do serious work and enjoy it. We worked hard at being inclusive and improving standards of care.

The thing I hated about being a NUM was the 'HR' side of it. I hated disciplining and confrontation. I tried hard to do it well but it was not my most favourite task. I tried to stay professional and maintain a great place to work. I genuinely wanted people to want to come to work. I wanted people to stay.

As a whole it was a good experience. The demographics of the local community was unique. We had many challenging families and I developed a close working relationship with the Department of Communities. Although I had worked in areas of a challenging nature before this almost monthly occurrence of potential child abuse was a difficult environment to navigate. It required some emotional resilience and because of this it was even more important to create a great working environment.

I think that this is not the time to discuss coping techniques for dealing with child abuse but its most definitely  a topic I'd like to discuss later down the line. It remains an ongoing challenge and something I became quite skilled in dealing with ,unfortunately.

I felt unable to return to the ward as a clinical nurse after the challenges of being a NUM. I knew one thing though- management was not a career path I was willing to pursue. I took on some project work for 6 months while I had a chance to re-evaluate my nursing path. I was unsure where to go to from that point and needed some time to think. This sounds easy looking back but it was an awfully stressful time. For a long time I worked one temporary position after another and it was another 2 1/2 years before I had a permanent job again. As the main wage earner in the family this caused huge uncertainty for us.

A new chance came out of the blue. I took a temporary post as a clinical nurse teacher in an emergency department and some funding became available to train up two Nurse Practitioners. Suddenly I found myself heading back to Uni and had no idea what the next few years would bring in this amazing,challenging,completely new role.