Paving our way forward

“One may walk over the highest mountain one step at a time.”

Moving towards face-to-face training again

I am a self-confessed planner. I enjoy looking ahead, setting goals and mapping out the steps required to move forward. I tend to balance my need for control with a dash of off-piste spontaneity. Just a mere few months ago that would be my ‘normal’ recipe for happiness.

But oh how things have changed. I, like so many others, have been forced to navigate a landscape of uncertainty. Survival instinct has replaced my need for perfect-planning. It’s as if a metaphorical blanket of self-protection has removed my ability to look too far ahead; instead my sole focus has been on today, tomorrow and the coming week. That’s all. And somehow, this strategy seemed to be working.. Until, that is the question of ‘new normal’ arose this week. For CBT, this was ‘what will classroom training look like in 1,2,3… months’ time?’

Happy International Nurses Day

Calcutta Rescue Fund Street Clinic 1993

Street Clinic, Calcutta Rescue Fund 1993

Here I look back to my nursing roots and celebrate all nurses in the UK and beyond.

Like many others, I’ve experienced a variety of emotions during lockdown (love the new phrase‘corona-coaster) but I’ve also had fair few moments of quiet reflection.

So, as today is International Nurses Day, I am indulging myself and taking a wee wander down memory lane. Despite no longer working on the wards or being on the NMC register, nursing per se is intrinsic to my soul; inside there’s a part of me will always be a nurse. And I don’t want that to change. The values that led me into nursing: being caring, authentic and compassionate and wanting to make a difference did not disappear when I metaphorically hung up my uniform. No, these are values I take with me as I wander through Life.