Celebrating International Nurses Day
It’s International Nurses Day on 12 May when we celebrate the anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth and the contribution that nurses make to society. This year the theme is ‘Our Nurses. Our Future’. Here’s our ophthalmic nurse practitioner Anna Bowditch on what it means to her to be a nurse.
She starts with a famous quote, from Florence Nightingale, “Nursing is an art; and if it is to be made an art, it requires an exclusive devotion…the finest of fine arts”.
Why did you decide to become a nurse?
I’ve wanted to be a nurse as long as I can remember. At the age of five, I verbalised this career choice, wanting to work in a selfless way.
Experiencing several immediate family bereavements - my sister and dad by the age of five - certainly sowed the seeds for a caring profession.
I was aware of the vast variety of areas of nursing that are available to go into. It seemed a rich career choice.
What do you like best about being a nurse?
Knowing you’ve helped to make a difference to someone’s health journey; it is meaningful work.
It is rewarding and a privilege when you consider that nurses are there to support patients and their significant others at a vulnerable point in their lives. Every nurse has at least one patient that they will remember forever.
Direct patient care for me is the best bit about nursing.
Teamworking is a positive. Working with a combinations of healthcare professionals to deliver coordinated care programmes for patients can be fulfilling, learning and gaining insight from different specialities.
My career choice has allowed me to travel and use my skills to volunteer abroad, such as Zambia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and on an annual basis in Romania.
What's special about being a nurse in Guernsey?
I was fortunate enough to be able to train locally, being in the first cohort to complete the degree program with the University of East Anglia on island.
Our hospital setting and services are on a much smaller scale compared to the UK - more intimate and not as daunting environment to work in.
There is a very different infrastructure of healthcare professionals in Guernsey, with no junior doctors etc so there does seem to be more responsibility put on nurses, which encourages nurses to work to a more advanced level.
Island life encourages a good work life balance, as the island’s beauty is there at the end of a shift, with cliff walks and the sea calling!
How do you think nursing will change in the future?
Nursing needs to do the following in the future:
Embrace the changing workforce, paying attention to working conditions, salaries, pensions and just general support, for nurses to feel valued.
Embrace technology. With the advances with technology the future of health is likely to be driven by technology-enhanced care.
Revolutionise education, moving towards more virtual ways of learning, so a lot more learning can be done from afar.