(A Grade to Band 7)

Paul Watson, BA Hons Primary & Community Care and Specialist Practice (School Nurse) 2007, talks about his career progression

Nursing was never a career that I had given thought to in the past. My future was destined to be lived out in the military or the police, until both choices made it clear that I was not for them! Having had several jobs whilst trying to get a career in either the Police or the Army, I decided to give the NHS a try. By this time I had been married for five years and had two daughters and felt that it was time for me to take a job that would provide some stability and career opportunities. I saw an 'A Grade' Health Care Assistant post advertised at my local hospital on something called an MAU. Unsure what an MAU was I applied and was offered an interview so decided to investigate what the ward was all about. I found out that MAU stands for Medical Admissions Unit - I was still no better informed but went for the interview anyway. To my surprise I was offered a full-time post and started almost straight away, completing my induction and working on the ward within a week of my interview.

I soon found out what an MAU is - a fast paced, busy, noisy, exciting place that people go once A+E have stabilised them or the GP has referred in directly. This was hard work, completing 13 hour shifts cleaning, making beds, mopping up after patients, but every minute was exciting and enjoyable. I worked hard on this ward and gave it my all, listening and learning from more experienced and senior staff. Within two months they had offered me to start a Registered Nurse training course. I started at university just two months after joining the NHS and stuck at it for three long hard years, working on many wards and completing lots of assignments and college work.

On completion of my RN training I returned as a 'D Grade' to the MAU. It was time for me to start learning how to become a nurse. I didn't want to be just any nurse, I wanted to be a good nurse. Now I felt that I was doing well and working hard and although I had not been qualified very long I was starting to look for promotion, although fate - or rather agenda for change - was to conspire against me. Just as management agreed I was due promotion to an 'E Grade', agenda for change was introduced and I became a 'Band 5' nurse. I started to get bored again and felt that with AFC on a 'Band 5' I was not going to get any promotion soon without completing further experience or training. Seeing an opportunity led me into School of Nursing. I moved back into a seconded 'Band 5' post at university for a further year to complete my public health degree, whilst working as a School Nurse in local schools.

After completing my degree I was promoted and moved away from my family to work just outside London. Being away from home for this period allowed me to start thinking about doing other things to keep me interested, so I started to write articles for publication in local and national journals. This writing became a bit of a bug, as well as an opportunity for me to be able to complete health promotion on a larger scale than that of my normal day job, ensuring that many public health agendas can be achieved simultaneously with child protection.

The plan at the start of my nursing career was to be a Deputy Charge Nurse within five years, and after that who knows. Actually I had managed to surpass that desire and had attained my 'Band 7' in just under five and a half years from qualifying, leaving me feeling quite satisfied with all the hard work that I had put in to getting there.

Working within the NHS can be exciting and fulfilling, but is even better when you have a goal or long term aim, and you are able to see these objectives being achieved. Very often there will be barriers and trying to work around them will be the biggest challenge to having what you want. The best thing to do to help yourself is to take any help offered, listen to all advice, observe the best and ask if you're not sure. With all of this information ingested I suggest you think long and hard about what you have and discard the bits that you're not sure of, retaining all of the good bits. This should then help you on the way to becoming the best practitioner that you can be.