Our Nurses. Our Future: Sara Tansley, Quality Matron

My Nan who actually worked at St James', NCH&C as a Matron, used to say to me that Florence always said  “The best nurses have the essential qualifications before they go to school”

Sara Tansley is the Quality Matron at our West Place. She shares how she ended up becoming a nurse and why she loves being a nurse. Read her story…

I have been qualified as a nurse for 23 years, training and qualifying at my local hospital, the hospital that I was born at.

I had never intended to be a nurse, in fact, I was going to university to study Archaeology. I happened to meet my now husband and did not wish to leave. A friend of mine said she was going to do nursing; it was local, and you could travel to the university daily on the bus for the training. It felt like the right thing to do.

My first placement was on an older person’s ward. The staff were amazing, and I can recall how privileged I felt looking after people who had lived such varied lives, shared amazing stories with me, and permitted me to give them care and comfort at their most vulnerable time.

I fell in love with nursing there and then.

As a nurse you see so many things that challenge you, bring you happiness, make you cry and make you think. Whilst some days it can be so very hard and frustrating, there is a real sense of worth and value in the art of nursing, especially when you nurse in a community where you and your family may need care and support in the future.

I have been fortunate enough to work for NCHC for 22 of my 23 years, but primarily working within the acute trusts providing older and vulnerable persons assessments in the emergency care areas, supporting patients to remain at or a close to home as possible.

The biggest part of being a nurse is to want to be able to comfort and care for those in their time of need. And to hear their story, the story that enables us to give the best possible outcomes for them and those important to them.

I consider myself to be a “hybrid” nurse, having worked for many years in an integrated team which shares elements of each other’s roles. I see the future of nursing as growing into practitioners who can cross boundary work via shared competencies and can really make every contact count, enabling more flexibility within our pressured workforce.

The challenge is being able to do this within a pressurised system, for both health and social care, but to try and deliver to the best of our ability and knowing that we are trying to do the right thing.

My Nan who actually worked at St James’, NCH&C as a Matron, used to say to me that Florence always said  “The best nurses have the essential qualifications before they go to school”