A 25-year NHS adventure nursing in Notts
Hiedi Swift, Respiratory Nurse Specialist at Nottinghamshire Healthcare, will shortly be retiring after a 25-year career in the NHS.
Hiedi began her journey as a student nurse in 2000, she shares her story of her career dedicated to providing outstanding care below.
Hiedi said: From starting out as a student nurse terrified when hearing the patient call system and wondering what I was going to be faced with (most of the time it was for a commode), to being a specialist nurse in an area I love and adore working in, has been one of the most grandest adventures.
I have experienced love, compassion, trust and listened to the most private secrets told by my patients, and I feel so humbled to have been part of that.
Working within a nursing profession is a demanding occupation or vocation, whichever way you see it.
For me most of early life was spent in and out of hospital, which lit a flame inside me to aspire to be a nurse and try to give back what I had experienced in my childhood. To see nurses walk onto a ward in their unform filled me with glee and this is the feeling I get when putting on my uniform and has always felt this way."
Hiedi is proud to have worked within a profession which has instilled strength, resilience and determination within her, and her colleagues who she's had the privilege of working with.
Hiedi continues:
Being a specialist nurse in respiratory medicine has allowed me the opportunity to educate staff, patients and university students, and to drive patient care and revaluate that care and learn from it. Also to be an independent nurse and advocate for my patients.
Nottinghamshire Healthcare has allowed me time to spread my wings and develop our service, introduce new self-management plans for patients who are left out of generic patient information.
Hiedi has left a lasting impression on her patients. Debbie, one of her patients from a Breath Easy Support Group, commented:
Hiedi has great compassion and uses her experience and initiative to advise and encourage the patient/person she is listening to. She has a natural warmth and empathy and a soothing effect which generates a feeling of calmness and relaxation. She is amazing and we do not know what we would do without Hiedi and this support group.
Hiedi has appeared on television, been recorded by NHS England and been a constant voice for specialist nurses, community nurses and her allied professionals, for which she is grateful.
Hiedi continues:
"The encouragement from senior managers throughout my time working for Nottinghamshire Healthcare has been faultless and I have been allowed to pilot so many ideas and evaluate the outcomes (some good, some not so good). But their support has always been evident.
"I am blessed to be retiring from a role I love, from a team of community respiratory nurses who I adore and respect and from a Trust who has let me run havoc and try new ideas and inspire others to make a difference.
"I want to thank everyone I have encountered and who have left their values and love with me, I will carry this always. I now pass on my experience to others and hope I made a difference. I promise to spend a day every year of my retirement doing something to remember two special members of staff who were taken from us before they reached their retirement and were unable to do this. "
Amy Eagle, Care Group Director of Community Health and Specialist Services at Nottinghamshire Healthcare said:
We'd like to thank Hiedi for the outstanding care she has provided to her patients, and for all her incredible contributions to the work of her team and of the Trust. We wish her all the very best for her well-earned retirement.
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