When in school, I was set on becoming a police officer, as I wanted to help people and felt that was the best suited career for me. After school and college, I worked in retail and admin roles as my local force weren’t recruiting officers for several years.
Chloe Scott - My Journey Into Nursing
At 21, I found myself in a human resources role for the police force, which I thought would be a great opportunity for me to get into the organisation and see how the police operate. I learnt a lot, I carried out recruitment and appointment (including interviews), managed attendance, supported police and staff in any challenges faced in the workplace and lots more.
After a couple of years, I left the police and decided that working in healthcare would suit me better, however I hadn’t quite decided in what role. I volunteered as a community first responder for the ambulance service, giving my spare time to attend to patients in my local area.
I also enrolled on a health science access course at my local college and studied full-time over a year, whilst working part-time hours at my local council. This course was fantastic, especially as a mature student. It really prepared me for university. We covered a broad range of topics, whilst also getting our heads around academic writing and referencing. It also prepared us all to be organised and manage our workload well.
After completing the access course, I started studying for a degree in occupational therapy. However, after a couple of months, I knew it wasn’t for me. I fell back into my old world and started working for North Wales Fire & Rescue Service and loved my role there.
I worked as a senior human resources advisor, based at their headquarters in St Asaph and my role meant that I was responsible for all employment matters across a geographical area of the service. I was also the lead for occupational health for the Service, I would manage the contracts we had with our providers, as well as making sure our employees were as happy and healthy as possible in their work.
This role was challenging but rewarding, deep down I knew it wasn’t where I would stay.
Supporting firefighters and support staff with health and wellbeing as part of my role, made my passion for healthcare grow further.
I had a bit of ill-health myself in 2017 and saw how incredible the nursing staff were at hospital. This was the catalyst for change! …Was nursing the career for me?
In 2018 I left the Service and started a Bachelor of Nursing (Adult) at Bangor University. I was so excited to start and knew the minute I entered the lecture theatre on my first day, that I had made the best decision.
We had a couple of months of theory at university before being let loose into clinical placement. My first placement was in a community hospital. The work centred around care of the elderly and caring for patients who were approaching the end of their lives.
I was nervous as I hadn’t really had any caring experience. However, the team there were fantastic and took me under their wings and allowed me to practice all the basic skills of nursing care. I will never forget that first placement… it was there that I knew that nursing was 100% what I wanted to do.
Since then, I’ve had a variety of different placements including cardiology (heart), an IV suite (a clinic placement where patients receive treatment as an outpatient), A&E, ophthalmology (eyes) and community nursing (going out to people’s homes).
I’ve learnt so much and met so many incredible people, both patients/carers and professionals. Nursing has a world of opportunity and each placement I go on I find even more – it’s never ending!
I will be 31 years old by the time I qualify next summer. That might seem old to some people, but there really isn’t a right or wrong age to start your nursing journey. I’ve got friends who were 18 and others who were in their 50s when they started their nursing degree.
I haven’t decided where I want to work when I qualify yet, but I know that wherever it will be, there will be so many opportunities for me to keep learning and the beauty of nursing is that you can work in so many areas, specialities, units, clinics, wards, GP surgeries, etc. The list goes on!
Nursing has given me so many opportunities and it allows you to meet so many amazing people. You will see people at their worst and at their best. You will face challenges which allow you to grow as a person. Most importantly, you will feel a sense of pride in your work, knowing that you’ve helped someone every single day. There aren’t many careers that can give you that.