Case studies : Paediatric nurse and education facilitator: Kate McNeil

Kate works as a paediatric nurse and education facilitator. She studied for a degree in nursing sciences. After several years in the profession she took a further qualification in health profession education.

Although people always told me I should be a nurse as I was growing up, I tried to resist that path and started out as a laboratory technician. But when I was on placement from college it became obvious that this was not suited to my skills. I was constantly counselling colleagues and supporting people who were under stress and I realised that I was indeed ‘destined’ to be a nurse. I’d always done a lot of voluntary work with children and even worked in a school for a while so I felt that paediatric nursing would be most interesting to me.

After qualifying and your initial few years the roles start to become more specialised. I took a job in oncology and intensive care and chose these as my specialities. I have progressed from a junior sister to a senior sister and now work in education. I got this job as I had started a Masters degree and saw this advertised (with a Masters as a requirement) so I applied. I was able to demonstrate that I had supported education in my clinical role and so I got the job. I do still work clinically as a medicines management nurse specialist.

I like the variety in my job and I really enjoy working in an organisation with a distinct philosophy and culture which the NHS definitely has. The culture in the hospital is very positive.

Less enjoyable is that expectations of us can be extremely high and I have high expectations of myself. Managing these expectations and trying to live up to them can become stressful at times.

I think anyone who wants to become a children’s nurse should get some experience of working with sick children. There are lots of charities out there that you could volunteer for or you could work voluntarily in a special education needs school. Paediatric nursing has lots of ways of branching out as a career. You could end up working in a school, in the community or in an acute setting.