Hi I'm Kate.
I was looking at your name badge and I thought
how do you pronounce that?
I know I get lot of confusion, it's
Scottish Gaelic, but people call me seat a lot!
What's your name?
My name is Lillian
Lillian, it's nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you too.
Where do you work here?
I work here in infection control
I've worked in the organisation since 2003.
So where did you start
when you first came?
When I first started working here at Guy's and St Thomas'
I joined the recovery for both Guy's
and St Thomas', but I was mainly
based at St Thomas' hospital.
Were you newly qualified when you started in recovery
or had you been a nurse elsewhere?
Not really, I think quite a lot of people,
you know, are scared to go straight into
recovery or critical care from qualifying
but actually, no it was from qualifying
that I went straight into recovery.
And the amount of support that we got
there was absolutely amazing, everyone made us
feel so welcome.
We got the induction package which was
very very good and we felt confident
from there on and I have to say when I
started I never thought I was going to
look after ventilated patients because I was
so scared, but you know the amount of
support really kind of you know made me
to feel so natural about everything
so it was a really good experience working in recovery at that time.
Amazing.
Yes. So after that,
of course when when you, you know start
your nursing you have to think about
developing opportunities and I then did
a few courses to solidify my recovery
skills and also did my intensive care
course where I had the opportunity to
move to critical care unit at St Thomas'
where I also got very valuable
experience and the support was amazing.
Kind of, you know, that equipped me to move
into Infection Control
afterwards where I have gained unbelievable experience.
Really? You seem to have had a
really nice progress through your career
you seem so positive about it. That's really nice.
I'm very positive and I think for me,
if you've got that passion for patient
safety and experience you know you can
really do well in your nursing.
Because you will have challenges along
the way but you know if you just focus
on patient safety,
you will enjoy your job, and I kind of
feel like naturally I'm just a nurse. [laughter]
Yeah, so I really enjoyed you know what I've
been doing and I'm still enjoying it and I hope to continue.
I can see that by the grin on your face [laughter].
How about you? So how is it like, you know kind of,
coming from college and you know now you
are newly qualified?
Yeah. How does it feel?
It was, it was very good actually I was
terrified coming down from Scotland and
it was all paper based in Scotland
and I didn't know the first thing about
all the computers or, all the different
members of the team all have
different names, like we didn't have
all sorts of things, anyway, I was very confused
all round, but everyone was absolutely amazing.
I did that rotation course.
You know, the grad rotations, so I went to four
areas within the Trust in my first year.
OK. Which four areas did you go to?
It was in GI and
then I went three months in district
nursing so, obviously Guy's and St Thomas'
have places all around the
area, and then that was quite scary
as well because I didn't know my
way round London! But it was very good it was
good and then I went to Mark Ward which is
stroke rehab and I'm now in the
Lane Fox Unit, so it's a respiratory,
high-dependency, so that's really good
and I can see quite similarities between
us starting because I just finished my
critical care course and and it was good.
Yes, everyone has been so supportive, like you
said I was, I thought oh my gosh, I'm never
going to look after these patients
they're so sick, they've got so much going on
but you learn so well and the Trust
really provides you with everything you
need to know like they give you so many
study days and courses and members of
the team coming in teaching and so it's
been very good and I learned a lot, a lot more than
I thought I'd learn, so it's been good. It's been very good.
It's really good about this
organisation, the fact that you are
allowed to develop yourself so it's very
good that you've actually gone to
different areas, you know, to solidify
your skills and you know I'm sure your
future is very bright and very very happy.
[laughter] it has been good.
Has it changed a lot from when you
started and where you are now, has the Trust
changed or the practice of Nursing has
that changed much?
I have to say you know a lot has changed
especially around you know how we do our
documentation, we used to use paper forms
now there is e-noting and, you know, for me in
terms of patient safety I think the
drive has even been, you know, more intense
over the years and then certainly, you
know, looking at compassionate care, with
films like Barbara's Story [dementia awareness film]
where, actually, you know staff were
being reminded to.. well we are here to
care for patients and be compassionate.
That was really really really useful for
staff and because I go around
different areas you know you could
actually feel, you know, the difference
you know, in nursing teams and their
approach to nursing. So a few things,
you know, have changed. Like I said, or a lot,
but you know the main aim really the nursing,
core of nursing, you know
know it's been consistent throughout and
of course we've got fantastic leadership
at Guy's and St Thomas' as well.
It's really, really been positive over the years here at
Guy's and St Thomas' and I'm looking forward to more.
That's nice. It's a very positive Trust all round, and I
thought because it was so large in the middle of
London, that I'd never get to know anybody, but I
walk through the corridors and I know like
porters and kitchen assistants and
nurses from other wards and everyone has
been so nice, it's been lovely, it's such a
nice Trust to work for.
Absolutely and I think for me you know whoever you are
whatever role you've got in the
organisation you are all very important
so it's quite nice to see everyone working
together, being nice to each other.
Well it was so nice to meet you.
You know where I am, so
if you need support with any of your career
development you know where I am.
oh that's lovely, I might do that, OK thank you so much.
Bye bye.