Our Community division want to send a big welcome on board to Liz Morley as their new Head Nurse and Caroline Lane as their new Matron.

Both have been valued, experienced members of the community team for some years and it’s great to have them join the senior management team.

Comms went to find out more about Liz and Caroline and Community nursing in general. Read all about parrots, floods and avoiding politics chat at all cost!

 

Outline your career so far and select a  career highlight.

Liz: I have worked for the Trust for 28 years, my first job was on Rawson Ward (female medical)at the Royal Halifax Infirmary followed by Appleyard Ward (male medical). I have spent the majority of my career working on the Medical Assessment Unit at CRH as a Staff nurse, Sister and Unit manager prior to moving to Community in 2012. I have had various roles within Community including, Divisional Matron and a 12 month secondment as the Associate Director of Nursing for the division. Attaining my first Sister’s post was a career highlight.

Caroline: Trained at Halifax School of Nursing Qualifying 1988. Worked on male and female medical wards at the old Halifax Infirmary. Seconded for 6 months to Wakefield College of Health to do post grad training in coronary care nursing. Sister of newly commissioned CCU at Halifax General ( old hospital). Left Calderdale in 1996 to become a Cardiology Nurse Specialist at Dewsbury Hospital. Specialised in all aspects of Cardiology including Cardiac Rehab/Heart Failure/Coronary Care/Complex cardiac Devices. Worked across Mid Yorkshire NHS Trust following the merge with Dewsbury. Seconded for a year to West Yorkshire Cardiac Network as Service Improvement facilitator  to lead on Cardiac Rehab/Heart Failure. Returned to CHFT 2017 as Clinical Lead Cardiac Rehab/Heart Failure before successfully obtaining Matron post. A career highlight was at the newly commissioned CCU at Dewsbury with a visit from Prime Minister Tony Blair. Interviewed by Sky news to find out my colleague who I trained with had seen it In Australia!!!  

 

Funniest moment (that’s printable).

Liz: There are so many funny moments during my career but most I cannot put in print! One was when I left the bath running on Rawson Ward at the old Infirmary. That resulted in  small evacuation of the ward which was bad enough, but the water flooded the department below which at the time was where sterile stores were kept. Whoops!

Caroline:  Whilst working in Cardiac Rehab at Dewsbury my colleague emailed us stating she had arranged for us to promote healthy eating in Sainsbury’s dressed in costumes of various foods. We all took it seriously even with the vegetarian amongst us choosing the non-meat option. Only to find out the date we were doing it was 1st April. Needless to say it wasn’t happening.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Do you need to have a natural ability to chatter? Football, families, weather.

Liz: Making people feel at ease when they are their most vulnerable is essential – just avoid politics!

Caroline:  Guess my husband would say so! You need to have good communication skills as a nurse and it's important you can find common ground with everyone so yes.

Why community over acute setting?

Liz: Providing care for patients in their own familiar surroundings and involving their families and carers is a privilege particularly during the end stage of life. I have experience in both Acute and Community settings and could not choose one over the other. The patient journey spans both and we are making great progress in ensuring that journey is as safe and seamless as possible.

Caroline: I don’t really see it as a choice between Acute and community as all my roles have worked across the whole patient journey. I see the hospital as part of the community too and we also have acute work in the community.

 

What qualities make a good community nurse

Liz: You’re not afraid of parrots, dogs, cats, mice or rats (I could go on)!!! Apart from that the qualities are the same as for any other nurse.

Caroline: Resourceful, resilient. The teams can be faced with challenging environments, situations without having equipment resources at hand. Yesterday a community nurse was faced with a water leak in a patients house and had to locate the stop tap

 

Favourite TV medical drama.

Liz: I don’t watch any TV medical dramas I have enough of my own!!

Caroline: Don’t really watch any but growing up I watched Angels. Guess that’s why I became a nurse