Meet our nurses

 

I’ve been encouraged to take up training and new roles and to progress in ways that I couldn’t have imagined. In our work as school nurses, there is flexibility and the possibility of term-time work. The hours are good for parents.

 

 

My story is a refugee story. I came as an asylum seeker in 2003, escaping the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. I had been doing medical studies and was three years through a six-year course when I had to leave. I spoke no English but wanted to learn and to work in healthcare, so I volunteered at the Royal Free hospital. I served meals and talked to the lonely patients. I also volunteered in the children's outpatients' playroom, spending time playing or reading to them while they were waiting to be called for their appointments.

 

I started in adult nursing in the first year and then I transferred to children’s for my second year. I started on Ifor Ward in 2010, after completing my Paediatric Nursing Diploma in 2009.

 

I was self-motivated and determined and the Whittington staff have given me the opportunity to do the public health course full-time for a year. I’m a Band 7 nurse now and work in a close team of people who look after 57 Islington schools (47 primary and 10 secondary).

 

I love my role despite the challenges. Good line management has helped me when it felt a bit daunting.

 

 

It has been a privilege to work in a multi-cultural context and to learn more about different religions. Islington is a very mixed borough.  Completing my Public Health degree has given me a better understanding of public health issues in the borough.   We care for children from 5-19, but in the future it is planned it will be from 0-19, so the role changes all the time.