After successfully gaining a languages & politics degree, I did a 180 degree turn and qualified as a Staff Nurse with a Nursing Diploma from Edge Hill College in 1995. All my student nursing placements were at Southport & Formby DGH, and my days as a Staff Nurse were on Wards 10a, A&E and Paediatrics.
My nursing took me in to the private sector in 1997 to work in insurance and then opportunity knocked and I moved into a training management role supporting the national roll out of a new IT System for NHS Direct.
Over a few drinks in the back garden, a huge leap of faith saw me flying off to China to work as an English Teacher in Zhongshan and Shanghai then on to St Petersburg in the Russian Federation, where the winter months and chapped legs saw me packing my bags and heading for home.
I moved to Manchester where my passion for education and training continued in my next few roles working for a charity, the local council and then a return to the NHS in 2007 to take up my first senior management role at the University Hospital of South Manchester. I was lucky to have various departmental head roles in education, training and organisational development and got my stripes over 7 years to successfully land me this role back where I began in Southport, my home town.
My nursing took me in to the private sector in 1997 to work in insurance and then opportunity knocked and I moved into a training management role supporting the national roll out of a new IT System for NHS Direct.
Over a few drinks in the back garden, a huge leap of faith saw me flying off to China to work as an English Teacher in Zhongshan and Shanghai then on to St Petersburg in the Russian Federation, where the winter months and chapped legs saw me packing my bags and heading for home.
I moved to Manchester where my passion for education and training continued in my next few roles working for a charity, the local council and then a return to the NHS in 2007 to take up my first senior management role at the University Hospital of South Manchester. I was lucky to have various departmental head roles in education, training and organisational development and got my stripes over 7 years to successfully land me this role back where I began in Southport, my home town.