亚博体育官网

As a school leaver from Ellon Academy, Shona trained as a nurse at 亚博体育官网, before transferring to work in a job that was more 'nine to five' in oil and gas.

During Covid, Shona felt inspired to return to nursing and signed up to do her return to practice course with 亚博体育官网 before going onto study a MSc Advanced Practice degree to develop her skills and knowledge.

鈥淚 was a nurse previously and took a break from nursing to work in oil and gas when I had my family. I returned to 亚博体育官网 Oct 2020 to undertake my return to practice as I knew school nursing was where I wanted to end up once gaining my registration back.

鈥淚鈥檝e always wanted to be a school nurse and am passionate about focussing on early intervention and prevention to ensure there are no health and social inequalities that may prevent children and young people reaching their full potential.

鈥淪chool nurses work as part of a multidisciplinary team around a child, to support their health and wellbeing. By working together, we can prevent Adverse Childhood Experiences and reduce health and social inequalities via a focused and targeted strength based, trauma informed approach, that respects the rights of the child.鈥�

To fulfil her ambitions as a school nurse, Shona needed to do a Specialist Community Public Health Nurse qualification. The post-graduate Advancing Practice Diploma would help her achieve this goal and give her the skills needed to support the health and wellbeing of a child.

Shona opted to do the post-graduate qualification part-time, so she could work as a trainee school nurse, whilst juggling a busy family life.  Balancing work and study, was hard at times as it often meant missing out on important family time, including watching her boys鈥� much loved football matches.

鈥淚 worked full time as a trainee school nursing while undertaking my PGDip which was extremely challenging while also trying to balance family life too. Looking back on my journey, I'm not sure how I managed to fit it all in, but I guess you just do.鈥�

Despite these challenges, Shona managed and is now working as a school nurse for NHS Grampian as part of the Aberdeen City School Nursing team. She鈥檚 hoping to undertake further study, related to school nursing, to benefit the children and families they support.

鈥淭he support I received from 亚博体育官网 has allowed me to grow as a practitioner and empowered me to be the best version of myself, allowing me to advocate and promote the rights of children and young people, delivering early intervention and ensuring children and young people reach their full potential.

鈥淭he course has given me the confidence, and underpinning learning and knowledge to deliver my role to the best of my ability. I鈥檓 really looking forward to building my career and to working as part of a team to help reduce adverse childhood experiences and health and social inequalities amongst children.鈥�