I never wanted to be a nurse.  I know, a bit of a wildcard way to start an RCN blog, as a nurse, but bear with me.  When I was growing up and all through school, I never wanted to be a nurse.  It was never that I had an aversion to nursing; it just wasn’t something that ever occurred to me to want to do.  I recall wanting to be a chef, wanting to be a hairdresser, wanting to be a paramedic, wanting to be an actress, wanting to be a psychologist and right up until I completed my UCAS in upper sixth, I wanted to be a social worker. 

There was a lot of competition to obtain a place at either Queen’s University or Ulster University to study social work. I was young and enduring the high of my first love, so moving out of NI to another university where there might not have been the same competition wasn’t even a consideration.  Due to how competitive it was, my careers advisor advised me to consider the possibility of taking a year out between school and university to gain some experience in health and social care, which I did.  So, I did, and I got a job in a local care home, and it changed my life.  It was the first time in my life, aside from watching medical dramas, that I had got any insight into what nurses do.  Nurses are the Swiss army knife of health and social care professionals.  When you are a nurse, you often end up fulfilling bits of all of the different professions that I had wanted to be at one time or another when I was growing up, particularly in a care home, as there are often fewer other professionals on site or available to you.

Once I realised this was what I wanted, I quickly set about trying to figure out a pathway to becoming a nurse.  Unfortunately, when I had been doing my A levels, I had been distracted by said first love and as I had decided I was taking a year to get experience, I and my eighteen-year-old mind and motivation placed less importance on the grades I would achieve in my A levels and I did not have the grades to study nursing.  So, I began researching different ways to meet the entry criteria.  I completed my NVQ Level 2 and Level 3 in Health & Social Care, which are accepted by some universities, alongside experience, for entry to nursing programmes.  However, I got to the interview stage at university at this point, but did not get any further.  The first love was over by this point, however, I now had a steady job in a care home local to me, and as I had become accustomed to earning a monthly wage, I was not keen on the idea of applying to universities in the rest of the UK, given the financial pressures this would cause.  I found that the Open University had a nursing programme and that this route would allow me to continue working and earning a wage whilst earning my degree.  I researched the programme and brought this as a proposal to my employer, but at the time, they couldn’t support it (spoiler alert: that would change a few years later). 

Determined, I found that some Open University nursing modules were publicly available, so I completed them independently to prove I could handle the course.  Before reapplying to university, I finished and passed the first-year and second-year human biology modules.  This time, I cast a wider net and applied to universities across the UK. I got an offer from Liverpool and a waitlist spot at QUB. While hoping for a QUB offer, I started looking at care home jobs in Liverpool. Then—game-changer—my employer told me they were trialling a partnership with The Open University to “grow their own nurses” and wanted me to be the first student.  I jumped at the chance! 

My employer partnered with the South Eastern Health & Social Care Trust to facilitate my placements outside of the care home setting, and I, along with another student who was also from the independent sector, became the first Open University nursing students in Northern Ireland who were from the independent sector.  As this went well, my employer offered this opportunity to more staff and as I progressed through the programme and qualified I began to receive messages from other people who had been allowed to study Nursing with the Open University by my employer, thanking me for being the first one to trial the programme as they felt without that, it would not have been offered to them.  Fast forward a few years, and I progressed to Deputy Manager in the same care home I had started as a Care Assistant almost fifteen years ago. One of the care assistants came to me on my last day and said that I was an inspiration to them and the rest of the care team, as they were aware of my journey. It proved to them that progression from care assistant to nurse, to sister, to deputy manager was possible in the care home setting. 

Now, back to 2017, I have qualified as a nurse!  Throughout my degree, however, I frequently encountered the misconception that care homes were “lesser” than other healthcare settings and that care home nurses are less skilled than nurses in different settings.  The reality is that care home nursing is complex, requires highly competent nurses, and is deeply rewarding. It requires expertise in frailty, dementia, palliative care, and managing long-term conditions, often with limited resources.  I felt I could make a small contribution to changing the misconceptions by focusing on my professional development to ensure I was providing the best care possible.  In Spring 2018, I started an MSc in Advanced Professional Practice at QUB.  There are the core modules that are part of the programme on research skills, however I made a conscious effort with the other modules I chose to focus in on modules that would bolster my skills in caring for older people – I studied pharmacotherapeutics, health assessment, biomedical aspects of cancer, a cardiac module and a law module.  Unfortunately, after completing this, I was unsuccessful in finishing my dissertation in 2019, instead obtaining a Postgraduate Diploma in Advanced Professional Practice. 

Undeterred, I completed a short course in Palliative Care at QUB in March 2020 and commenced a Postgraduate Diploma in Care of the Elderly via distance learning in March 2020 (and no, when I signed up for both programmes, I did not think that I would be completing these programmes amid a global pandemic!).  I successfully obtained my second PgDip in March 2021 and joined the British Geriatrics Society around this time. Shortly afterwards, I became the nurse representative for NI on the Nurse & AHP Council – a role I still hold today and enjoy, as I can ensure the voice of care home nursing is involved in the BGS at this level. 

The BGS also partner with the Royal College of Physicians on the Diploma in Geriatric Medicine (DGM), and in 2022, I took and passed Part I of the DGM.  I also published for the first time in 2022, with an article on Frailty in Nursing Older People, which felt like a massive accomplishment.  I didn’t know then that by the time I got to 2025, I would have published another few times and contributed to a textbook on caring for the older person!  In 2023, I completed the Nursing Care of Older People in Care Home Settings course at QUB at MSc level, which culminated not only with me obtaining the course certificate but also being award a Cavell Star for services to patients and having rebuilt the confidence to return and try to obtain my MSc in Advanced Professional Practice.  In 2024, after starting the MSc Journey many years before and facing some bumps in the road, I received an MSc in Advanced Professional Practice with Commendation.  Obviously, I focused on care home settings in my dissertation. I completed this on educational interventions available for care home staff on Parkinson’s Disease, an area with very little high-quality research. Publishing my findings in Nursing Reports in January 2025 was a huge milestone.

In addition to focusing on my education and development throughout my career, I have also concentrated on the development and education of others.  I developed a structured teaching programme for nursing students on placement, focusing on the Geriatric Giants and the crucial role of nurses in care homes. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive; students gained confidence, changed their perceptions of older people’s care, and some even considered it a career choice.  I also worked on delirium education programmes for my colleagues and education around patient deterioration, using RESTORE2, treatment escalation plans, and effective clinical handover, which increased knowledge and confidence amongst colleagues.

In 2025, I became the first independent sector nurse to be appointed to an Honorary Lecturer position at the School of Nursing in QUB, a title that I am honoured to hold (pardon the pun).  I am also now a deputy manager in a Healthcare Ireland home. I am focused on building on the educational programmes I have previously delivered to students and colleagues and building stronger partnerships between academia and care homes. I firmly believe that care homes should be recognised as centres of excellence in older people’s care—and I’m determined to make that a reality.

My journey has shown me that nursing isn’t just about caring for patients—it’s about leading, teaching, and driving change. Whether through mentoring and teaching students, encouraging and facilitating the professional development of my colleagues, influencing policy, or implementing new care models, I want to leave the profession stronger than I found it.

Anyone considering a career in care home nursing should do it. It’s one of the most rewarding, challenging, and impactful areas of nursing. And for those already in the sector, let’s continue to advocate, educate, and prove that care homes are places of expertise, compassion, and innovation.