My Story

Hi I’m Pat,

In retirement my passion is to help elderly people retain their independence. I was an NHS nurse for 38 years and now want to use knowledge learnt from my
experiences to promote safety and prevent unnecessary harms. Here’s how I got here …

Retirement celebration with my daughter.

1982

1982 - 1986 Coventry School of Nursing

The day I gained State Registered Nurse (SRN) qualification is still fresh in my memory.

I see my friend and I reading our result letters and crying with joy. I can hear the sorters upstairs at the postal depot, who had kindly found our letters and sent them down to us, shouting "congratulations" down the receptionist’s phone. What a moment!

1986

1986 -1991

Staff nurse on medical ward and male orthopaedic ward. What those men got up to made us laugh nearly every day. Thinking back, men were more fun to look after as they were always up to mischief.

1992

1992 - 2010

I worked on various wards and trained in Radiology, Endoscopy and Theatre Nursing. Seeing people suffer gave me a strong interest in prevention. As Lead Nurse for the English National Bowel Cancer Pilot I was part of a team that saw how prevention can save suffering by catching disease early. Its' success paved the way for the National Bowel Screening Programme we now have. I decided to retire.

2011

2011 - 2017

Missed nursing so went back to it but chose something different. I became a District Nurse and happily helped people in their homes who through frailty, accident or illness had lost their independence and could not take care of themselves or leave the house. A car accident made me change career again.

2017

2017 - 2020

Back to A & E Dept which I had not been in since my student days. Only lasted one year.
What an unenviable place to work it had become over the intervening years. I had to leave otherwise I would have told someone “Where to go" and been sacked.

My last ward was a coronary care unit from which I retired in February 2020. This time I was ready for retirement, and I spend time visiting our country's wonderful coastline.

2020

2020 - now. I'm on a MISSION

However, numerous news items with pictures of lines of ambulances have often dragged my mind back to A & E where it was a daily reality for me. I started to realise that maybe I could do something to reduce hospitalisations of the elderly and reduce the stress on staff trying to look after them.

I started Promoting Independence Ltd with prevention of accidents as a goal. Accidents take away independence and, unfortunately, lives too. I want to encourage thought and discussion amongst families about removing hazards in the home that could potentially cause harm.

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