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Millie Johnstone

Millie Johnstone

00:00:01 My name is Millie Johnstone. I'm a lead nurse in the Emergency Department. I have some clinical involvement, but that's only twenty percent of my job, eighty percent of that is actually managerial. It's about ensuring that the staff that are working for you are well supported, are being developed professionally, and giving them the tools to do the job that they're asked to do. It's challenging, it's interesting, it can be daunting at times.

00:00:34 I used to think about wanting to be a writer, 'cause I used to like writing stories, might still be! I had thought about nursing when I was at school. I had gone on a hospital visit and kind of was completely put off by the idea. I just felt I couldn't really be part of that environment. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do when I left school, and I went into banking. I worked in a Building Society for only eighteen months really, and after that I worked in an insurance - with an insurance company. I think I couldn't see myself working in an office-based environment for the rest of my life, I felt I was actually quite good with people, I wanted to re-explore that aspect of going to work in a professional where you were actually dealing with people. And applied to various hospitals and I was accepted at Addenbrookes here, which is where I did my training. And then within that, you know, throughout the years I've obviously developed professionally and I've taken on different roles, and obviously this is my latest.

00:01:35 This first six months is really challenging, and it is about sinking or swimming. You know there are times when you think, I don't really want to do this, but then you think you know finish it will get better. I think you know in a sense it's best not to have too many preconceived ideas about what you want to do 'cause the reality's obviously - it's often not what you think. So I'm glad I didn't have that sort of image of saying I want to be this amazing nurse and I want to help all these people you know, you can't - I just feel that you can't kind of be too sort of narrow minded about what you want to do. Because things will work out if it's going to be the job for you.

00:02:09 You can go home, you know, even though you've dealt with you know perhaps dreadful situations, you can still say well you know we did the best we could, and actually we did that really well. And that's kind of really a real buzz. I could see myself leaving at some stage, and you know I'm quite interested in counselling, and looking after people in a different way, yes, so that's what I could see myself do later on.

00:02:35 ENDS