Natalie Bowman

I consider myself to be an enthusiastic and motivated individual, eager to expand my knowledge and to learn new skills to enable myself to provide a high standard of care to patients and families. Over the past 12 years I have acquired a valuable knowledge base and a number of transferable skills from within the areas I have worked, implementing new skills and developing my own practice with a flexible approach to change; as well as initiating changes to practice within the clinical and community area's I have worked. As a result I keep myself up to date with current practice and healthcare issues, taking time to ensure that I am familiar with policies relating to my practice, enabling me to deliver safe care to a high standard.

After qualifying I took the position of staff nurse on a children's oncology ward which provided me with relevant skills to provide holistic care. It was here that I gained the valuable clinical skills; administering IV's via ports and central lines, administering chemotherapy and blood products and pain management that have continued to keep myself up date and use within my role as bank nurse. Career progression to a medical ward followed this enabling me to expand my knowledge base and gain valuable experiences of caring for children, young people and families. During this time I was given the opportunity to complete a leadership course, providing me with a good knowledge base related to change management and team leadership. During this time I also took the manager on call bleep, which required me to manage the Paediatric unit, within this role I demonstrated the ability to make considered decisions in the best interest of the whole unit , recognising and managing the consequences of these decisions. Through gaining valuable experiences through my career in ward settings I wanted to gain further skills and knowledge within the community and successfully assumed a role as a public health staff nurse within the Sheffield school nursing team, this then lead me to want to further my career as a health visitor and so completed the SCPHN course at masters level in August 2019.

At present I currently work as a health visitor band 6 within Derbyshire, delivering public health to a large and diverse community. Due to the diversity of the setting within which I work I ensure that I continue to educate myself around others cultures and beliefs to ensure that I am fully aware of what may be acceptable within that community. I ensure I promote equality and diversity within my practice, taking into consideration others beliefs and opinions and working with families to support them in a way which will work for them at that time. I am able to identify when I need further support from others and will always seek further advice and support, by doing so I believe I deliver safe practice to a high standard which I pride myself on.

I have been actively involved with promoting the Healthy Child Programme within my area of work, and learning how to deliver the 0-5 service. Within my current role I strive to support children, young people and families in achieving their fullest potential. Overtime I have developed both personally and professionally, encapsulating a public health role to acquire skills to consistently assess, plan, implement and evaluate family centred care. I consistently deliver the five mandated visits; I also run weekly health review clinics seeing both universal and universal plus families. Communication is a vital part of my role and through experience I feel confident to make appropriate challenges and to be an advocate for children, young people and families which is important within the clinical setting also.

Part of my role as a health visitor is to work closely with children, young people, families and other professionals. Part of this role involves ensuring the health and wellbeing of that child, young person or family is safeguarded. I have attended a number of safeguarding training sessions to ensure that I deliver safe current practice within this area of my work. I feel that whilst working with families within the safeguarding arena it is important to remain open and honest. I pride myself on my communication skills, providing relevant information to both families and professionals whilst maintaining confidentiality were it is needed. I believe the skills I have acquired as a Health Visitor will be transferrable to the role within the field of CAMHS. I have also completed my prescribing module which enables me to prescribe in accordance with the NPF and local guidelines.

I work closely with other professionals and ensure I provide clear communication either verbally or written, maintaining confidentiality were appropriate and acting in a professional manner. I ensure that all relevant information is entered onto records and nursing documentation in a timely manner, documenting the correct information relevant to that patient both in a written format as well as using a computerised system.

I have excellent time management skills, which is important when working in a busy high pressured environment. I feel that I am competent at managing most situations I come into contact with and acknowledging my own and others limits, I am never afraid to seek further advice so as to ensure safe practice is delivered. My confidence has grown immensely over the years as I have had gained a vast experience of differing situations within my areas of work. I am confident in voicing my own opinions when appropriate and acting as an advocate for patients in a professional manner and feel that this is an important part of my role, as well as being able to build professional relationships with others. I pride myself on thorough written and verbal communication and understand the importance of maintaining a high level in this area of my work. I understand and promote the importance of client confidentiality, sharing information related to a patient only when it is completely necessary and adhering to trust policy at all times.

As part of the SCPHN program I have also had the opportunity to implement a new service into practice, based on the health needs of the community. I chose to base my project on 'school readiness' an already identified high impact area. Information from local schools and nurseries also acknowledged the lack of school readiness within the local community and supported in the delivery of the project. I believe implementing new services within any scope of practice to be a very important skill for any practitioner as it allows for service development and new ways of implementing best evidence based practice.

Through out my career within the community and hospital setting I have continued to develop my skills within the field of mental health. During my time as a school nurse I would hold school health drop in sessions where I would see children with a wide range of metal health issues. I would also implement individual care plans for children to support them with their emotional health. Then when returning to university to complete my SCPHN course I then used the transferable skills already acquired to support mothers during the antenatal and postnatal period who are experiencing mental health problems. Mental health can impact a whole family and during my time as a health visitor I have led team around the family meetings with the multidisciplinary team to best support all members of a family from universal to a safeguarding level. Whilst working in ED I have also supported children attending in crisis with the support of other services, I have cared for children with a wide range of mental health disorders whilst working on the wards, including eating disorders. I feel that I have gained many transferrable skills through out my career which would be advantageous within a role in CAMHS . Through out my career as a nurse and health visitor I feel I have demonstrated the ability to adapt very quickly and easily to any given situation, I feel confident in my own nursing ability to now further my career within the field of mental health where my heart truly lies.

Overall I deem myself to be a valued team member able to adapt my skills to any given situation, working as both an individual and as a member of the team. I feel that I have gained the knowledge and experience to now further my career within a new area and look forward to gaining a wider knowledge and experiencing new learning opportunities within the role.