Hello, my name is Ifeoluwa Ajiibayo, I work at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. I have worked in the NHS for 7 years, but have been at Leeds for 5 years. I currently work as a senior project nurse within the professional development team in corporate nursing.

I think that most international nurses coming to the NHS think that it will be similar to their own country and a lot of times it is different. When it comes to developing your career in the NHS, nursing is great in the sense that once you are able to understand what specialities you are interested in the sky is the limit. You can literally grow, from the basics right to the top and that is one great thing about the NHS.

The one thing that I would say to every international nurse that comes into the NHS is to engage with whatever is happening within the organisation. For career development and belonging, fully engage with programmes, engage with the processes, and engage with the system. You have a part to play, you want things to go in a particular way, do not stay aloof and expect other people to do the work, be part of it, be the change that you want.