My mother trained to be a nurse and encouraged me to consider it as a career. I saw her using these skills every day while I was growing up. I still remember some of the practical skills and continue to use some of them today. In the early 1990s, I volunteered, and worked for a charity in India, providing medical and nursing care for people living in the worst conditions imaginable. This experience led to me training to be a nurse when I returned to England.
After qualifying, I worked as community nurse for a few years before becoming a district nurse. Working in the community gave me the opportunity to learn and develop a wide range of transferable skills. I did take some time away from the NHS and used my skills in Malawi, working with people with HIV and vaccinating children who did not have life saving and preventable disease vaccinations.
Upon returning to the UK, I started a part-time practice nursing apprenticeship, while continuing to work as as a community nurse the rest of the week. This is when I started to specialise in managing chronic diseases and started to work full-time as a practice nurse and completed my nursing degree in nursing with a 2:1.
After working in GP practices across Essex including becoming a practice nurse manager, leading a team of nurses and health care assistants across 11 practices, I was given the chance to help implement a plan to reduce hospital admissions.