Claudine Evetts is a lead clinical nurse at WithYou. We asked her about her career path and role.
WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO WORK IN THIS FIELD?
If I’m brutally honest, I fell into it. Many, many years ago, my role was looking after clients in custody, going from cell to cell. I was the only one on full time work, everyone else was on part time, so I was getting all the really rubbish shifts and I’d be given 40 minutes to get from Walsall to Wolverhampton, to get into the cell custody suite to take someone’s blood. I was literally run ragged all over the West Midlands.
Someone I knew at WithYou (when it was previously called Addaction) asked if I’d be interested in a bloodborne viruses nursing role. I asked, ‘Well, what does it entail?’ She told me, and I thought it sounded interesting, so I applied, got the job, and realised that that’s where my passion lay.
I stayed in that previous role at WithYou for seven years as the BBV nurse. I implemented so many different things when I was there. I shouted the loudest about policies and practice standards, and I ended up being the first lead nurse for the organisation. I did that for three years, and then, because I’d had my daughter and she had specific needs, I left to look after her and went into general practice. I had an eight-year break, and then I came back to WithYou.
My passion for this sector has never died, and I don’t think it ever will. When I was in general practice I didn’t wake up on a Sunday morning, see something in the news and think, ‘We could implement that for our clients.’ General practice is held firmly by the senior partners, you don’t get the opportunities for innovation in the same way. Whereas we’ve got innovation here, we’ve got a chance to create better care for our clients.
WHAT DOES A TYPICAL DAY LOOK LIKE?
I haven’t got a typical day. Today, for example, I’ve looked at a competency framework for a volunteer who’s a nurse that is offering to do low level health interventions for our clients. We need to make sure that their governance and their indemnification is seen too. I’ve also looked at a workbook for our residential rehabilitation centre Chy, in Cornwall, because I’m going down there to train staff.
I collaborate with other members of the team. I run the ‘Communities of practice’ for all the north west clinical staff, whereby we get together once every three months to to be able to share best practice, to discuss case studies that may be worth thinking about, to discuss innovations and proactively look at how we can actually embrace those innovations and shape them. I support clinical supervisors and clinical leads in their services.
Finally, in the midst of all that, once a month I go to Shropshire to do a clinic where I still go and see clients, I still vaccinate, I still prescribe for clients as needed, and do assessments and give out health advice.
WHAT DO YOU FIND MOST REWARDING?
The innovation to push new practices forward that will benefit our clients in the long run. I am very client-focused and client-driven. For me, everything is about the client. They are marginalised but don’t deserve to be, they deserve access to healthcare in exactly the same way as anyone else. Sadly they have often been through experiences that have caused trauma which impacts on their ability to access healthcare in the same way as the general population. That shouldn’t mean that access is cut off. So it’s about us facilitating innovative, new referral pathways in collaboration with a variety of health colleagues.
In simplicity, some have early childhood trauma, their brain synapses and neurology then form differently, and the pathway in the brain becomes atypical. Well, that’s what we need to do with health pathways/interventions. They just need to be accessed in a different way, not the same way, as everybody else.
WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO CHANGE?
My vision all those years ago when I was a BBV nurse was to have a ‘one stop shop’ for healthcare. We are a little bit nearer, but we’ve still got quite a way to go to have that ‘one stop shop’, though it is the way forward, that’s what I want to keep pushing – as should others. I want to help facilitate more skills for our nurses to be able to ensure that our clients are looked after holistically. I just want parity for our clients, and currently, they haven’t got the parity they deserve.
I also want to see more innovation and bravery in the sector. I do understand we need to have certain boundaries, policies and procedures, but I do think that we trip ourselves up and we create more barriers, rather than just test bed at a pilot site and if it works… repeat.
It’s actually about remembering why we’re here in the first place, forming the best practices, and doing away with our own egos.
WHAT’S YOUR ADVICE FOR ANYONE CONSIDERING A SIMILAR CAREER?
The clients are wonderful – embrace their lessons because they have so much to teach you. Trust in yourself, and ensure that you’re doing it for the right reasons. Be innovative, bold and brave.
See opportunities like Claudine’s on DDN Jobs