Interesting people – Kate Hartley

Meet Kate, Senior Staff Nurse, Unplanned Care

#InterestingPeopleFulfillingCareers

My mum and gran were nurses and tried to talk me out of it, but I was determined. I’d dipped my toes in other careers, retail and project engineering, but it never felt right.

I’ve always had a caring side and thought about how much I’d enjoyed looking after gran and working in a care home, so decided to aim for a nursing degree. As soon as I got out on placement, I knew I’d made the right decision and that’s what I wanted to do.

I trained in Huddersfield and had both hospital and community placements in Calderdale. I didn’t enjoy bedside nursing, I liked the freedom of community nursing – you go about your day how you see fit and I just prefer the community environment.

I joined Bradford District Care Trust straight from college as a staff nurse and I was like a deer in headlights! I wouldn’t say boo to a goose I was so scared and shy. But my team was so supportive, and I had a fantastic manager.

We work in some of the most poverty-stricken areas, which I honestly found quite a shock when I first started. I was 100% out of my comfort zone. But being placed there brought me out of my shell because you can have a laugh with these patients, they appreciate that. They don’t like you coming in being on a high horse and using jargon they don’t understand.

You ensure you’re on their level and you realise they are the most fantastic group of patients. Most are so appreciative of any advice and treatment you can give. They are so grateful and I absolutely loved it – loved every minute of it.

#InterestingPeopleRewardingWork

I’m quite ambitious and after about three years I’d learned loads and developed my own skills, but there were no opportunities for promotion in my own team.  I felt a bit stalled, so with the support of my manager, I started looking for a new challenge.

I applied for a senior staff nurse position but was unsuccessful initially and I was really upset as I knew I had the skillset. But I was approached by the operations manager for planned care suggesting I apply for a secondment in practice education instead, to give me a change.  I’ve always loved teaching, and this was a role supporting newly qualified nurses to build their skills and confidence.

I got it and enjoyed it. It was lovely meeting so many other people and teams and feeling I was being helpful, taking staff nurses out with me and getting them confident with vena puncture, compression, catheterisation, palliative care, medicines administration, complex wound care – a whole range of things, even using SystmOne, because that can be a bit of a minefield.

The feedback was positive as those newly qualified nurses were upskilled to be able to complete certain tasks and visits independently – which is obviously better for their team.

And I really enjoyed the teaching side of things. My own confidence came on in leaps and bounds too. I had a bit of imposter syndrome thinking I might not be qualified enough to be teaching others, but I soon found I could show people the little tips and tricks I’d learned that could make things easier.

I always say don’t be afraid to ask for help – doesn’t matter how many times, it’s better to get it right and feel confident so you’re not putting yourself or the patient at risk – there really is no such thing as a stupid question. If you don’t know you don’t know – there’s no need to apologise, just ask and get the help and support you need.

Whilst I was on secondment I applied for the senior staff nurse role again – I wasn’t deterred, and I knew I had more to add to make my application stronger. I’d also decided to do a leadership course in my own time so I could add that to my portfolio. I applied again and got second time lucky with the Unplanned team in City and South.

#InterestingPeopleExcitingProjects

We’re a 24-hour service but I’m mainly on days and just fill in occasionally on nights. You can go on a visit, and it turns out something is completely different to what you’d expected. There are crises too and you have to sort out care and equipment and that’s really rewarding, especially when you’re helping at the end of life – it’s such a privileged to be involved with the patient and their family.

We can be troubleshooting things like a blocked catheter, or ensuring wounds leak less as they’ve got the right treatment, or just giving medication to help with their pain and help them settle so they get a good night’s sleep.

It’s a lot of communication between the various services involved and ultimately giving the patient the best care they can possibly have, which is the most important thing. It’s so fulfilling when the patient’s family are grateful that you’ve been able to support them – we have a lot of that in unplanned because we’re dealing with acute need.

I like not knowing what you’re going to get – it can make you a bit anxious, but I think I thrive on that. There is never a dull day in the unplanned service.

It’s still early days in my new role and I’m enjoying the challenge with my team – you have bad days and good days, like with any job. Some days are so busy and so hard, but we’re resilient and a good team – we just get on with it and do the best we can and support each other.

I think in this more senior post you have to be positive when things aren’t going so well and role model for your team and I enjoy that. I like nurturing other members of staff and seeing a good or comforting outcome for both staff and patients.

#InterestingPeopleBestPlaceToWork

I’ve been with the Trust for about five years, and I hope to stay because I’m enjoying the work and the challenge. I’m only a few months into this new job and I’m enjoying where I am.

I hope at some point in the future I can go on to do the master’s level district nursing course and work my way up, but for now I want to get my leadership course finished and carry on gaining experience in my current role.

The Unplanned Care service is still relatively new. The service reorganised to create different portfolios of work – anticipatory, planned, unplanned and specialist care – so there’s a lot of work still underway to improve and make unplanned care better and I like to think I’m a part of that change.

I put my own ideas forward about how things could be run better, my managers are always open to suggestions and they’re always well received. Change doesn’t happen overnight as there are other people and teams that need to be involved, but I like knowing that my involvement has had an impact.