Benjamin qualified and worked as a teacher in Zimbabwe before coming to teach in the UK. After 5 years he decided that he wanted a change of career and to become a children’s nurse. He gave his reasons for the change: “Working in a large city like Leeds I saw many kids who came to school not having had breakfast or who were clearly in a bad shape emotionally. I felt I wanted to learn how to help them from a different perspective. They were not ready to be educated and they needed a different kind of help than what I could give them. I want to train as a children’s nurse and then do mental health nursing with the view of helping children and their families in the community as a specialist health practitioner.”

Growing up in a close Bangladeshi community in the UK, I was aware that many of my mother’s friends were suffering from different forms of anaemia and depression caused largely by their life style, which is so different from living in a hot country. I was also aware that, with the rise of HIV and AIDS, Muslim women have very specific needs that they may not be aware of. While I was at school, I saw various adverts for becoming a nurse and decided that perhaps this was something I could do that would improve women’s lives. My plan is to train as a nurse and try to concentrate on women’s diseases both through placements in hospitals and clinics and in the community. Eventually, I see myself working from a general practice as a specialist advisor for women’s health. I expect to take some counselling courses as well as a course in sexual health once I have qualified.

Being the oldest of four children, I was the one who was responsible for looking after the others. When the youngest one was born I had very mixed feelings about her arrival and I now understand that I was jealous of all the attention she was receiving. It wasn’t until some time later, when I noticed that she was not doing the same kinds of things that the others could do, that I began to realize that she was different. In fact, I found out that she had Down’s syndrome, a genetic change where someone is born with an extra chromosome. As a result, they often have a number of abnormalities, but the most difficult one is their impaired ability to learn. Hannah was so loving and so much fun, but we had to take special care of her to make sure she was safe as she was always getting into a pickle. I suppose she changed my life, because I realized how difficult it could be for someone with Down’s syndrome and for their family if they did not get the right support. My family was very lucky: we had a brilliant community nurse who had trained in learning disabilities. So I decided I would find out more about it as a career. I did some voluntary work in summer camps and worked some shifts in a local community house for a group of four people all with learning disabilities. I found the experience so satisfying that I decided it was what I wanted to do with my life. I was really surprised how much it entailed. It was not just to do with physical and mental health care; education was also a big factor in teaching people to have socially fulfilling lives, as well as knowing about all the state-funded facilities that are available for families and people who have a learning difficulty.

Both my parents are nurses and I resisted the idea as I felt I wanted to make my own decisions. I got three good ‘A’ levels at school and decided I should go to university, where I obtained a 2:1 degree in human sciences. However, by the end of the course, having also spent my holidays working as a care assistant, I really felt something was missing from my life and so I began finding out more about nursing. I felt I wanted to care for people and make them feel nice, help them gain their self-esteem and have a fulfilling life. I see myself becoming a ‘geriatric nurse’. I know it is a bit of a Cinderella in the nursing profession but I can see myself making a real difference. I am also aware of how complicated the medical condition of older people can be, with so many organs failing and the difficulties of getting medications right for each individual. Doing a postgraduate nursing course means I can qualify more quickly because I get credit for my degree. I am determined to make a career out of this and will go on to do a masters degree and perhaps a doctorate where I can do research into the care of older people.

Jolene started nursing when she was 35 years old. She has three children between the ages of 7 and 15 years. Before starting her nursing course, Jolene had been a catering manager in her local NHS hospital. As a single parent she had found the hours suited her and was pleased when the Trust introduced a scheme for staff who wanted to take further education courses. Jolene had enrolled and done well, achieving the equivalent of three ‘A’ levels through national vocational qualifications (NVQs). During her work, she had become aware of what nurses do and she felt that she wanted to improve the quality of her life by becoming a professional. She was accepted at the local university and is now in her third year of the programme. She found the changes difficult to make, especially as many of her mentors were younger than she was. However, what she enjoyed most was the drama of working in the acute surgical wards. She found it very satisfying having people coming in with a lot of discomfort, supporting them through their anxieties of having an anaesthetic and surgery, then making sure they were pain-free afterwards and going home cured. As part of her placement, she had spent three weeks in the intensive care unit (ICU) and had worked alongside some very skilled nurses, caring for patients who were on life-support systems (ventilators, heart monitors and drug infusers). Initially, she had been quite scared of being there, but with her mentor’s support she gained in confidence. She then began to see how dependent the patients were on good nursing care and how skilled the nurses were in helping the patients recover both physically and mentally. On a visit to the surgical outpatients department some months later she had been astonished to meet a patient who had recognized her voice from the time she had worked in the ICU. Looking back on the experiences of her course so far, Jolene highlighted these as inspiring her to be a surgical nurse, able to provide total care to people when they are at their most vulnerable. She realizes that she will need to have quite a lot more experience and probably further studies to top-up her diploma to a degree.