No two stories about people’s pathways into nursing are the same. Everyone’s story is different.
Being a nurse doesn’t have to have been your dream career since childhood – ambitions and goals change.
Being a nurse doesn’t have to be what you’ve always done for a job – people train and re-train.
Being a nurse doesn’t mean that’s where your career begins and ends – development and progression opportunities are available.
We’re sharing just a few staff stories from nurses at East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (ESNEFT) as part of International Nurses’ Day (12 May), to highlight that nursing careers are far from linear.
Rachael Edwards: Deputy Chief Nurse, Colchester Hospital
Rachael, pictured above, is one of ESNEFT’s newest recruits, having joined the Trust at the start of April.
Her varied career in nursing began in a care home where she was a kitchen hand and cleaner. She’d left school with no qualifications, but the matron spotted how great she was with the residents and encouraged her to join the nursing team as a healthcare assistant. The same matron then sponsored Rachael to do her nursing training in 1986. This also involved attending night school to gain the qualifications she’d missed out on at school to get on the course.
After qualifying, Rachael worked in learning disabilities before joining the Royal Navy aged 21. She spent seven years in the Queen Alexandra Royal Naval Nursing Service working in all acute specialties and completing her registered general nurse qualification at Portsmouth University.
She carried out many roles at home and abroad in the Navy, including driving the Landrover ambulances at HMS Daedalus airbase, pictured above. After leaving the Navy to have her first child, she went into GP practice, medical assessment unit and NHS Direct.
Rachael, 55, who hails from Scotland, now has four children – Jordan, 28, Kayleigh, 27, James, 17 and Ollie, 13, six springer spaniels and five sheep.
The mum-of-four has worked in various roles across the UK, with experiences in the Department of Health, Local Authority, private, social care, GP Out of Hours, NHS 111, care homes, as well as acute, community and ambulance services.
Rachael and her husband Mark also ran a cattle and sheep farm in Wales for 12 years until a period of ill health for Mark forced the pair to call time on their farming days.
Rachael said: “The NHS has developed me throughout my career, and I have been working at deputy director level in various roles for the past 20 years. I was too busy with children, the farm and living to progress my career any further.
“There are a lot of nurses that are not ‘academically’ minded and may feel they can’t progress unless they are. But nursing is still one of those careers based on a caring vocation and qualifications can be obtained at any time and nursing is a career for life.
“When we moved to Norfolk three years ago, I decided I wanted to progress again and embarked on an executive master’s in business administration, chartered managers course and accelerated directors’ program, consolidating my years of leadership experience within the NHS, and qualifying in December 2024.
“It’s important to recognise that there will be different stages of your life and times when you want to step on the accelerator and develop your career, and times when you take your foot off and that’s OK.”
Manju Markose: interim Corporate Lead for Advanced Practice
Manju, pictured above, is an international nurse. After achieving a degree in nursing and midwifery in India, she travelled to England in 2002 aged 26 having been inspired by the British and European nursing textbooks she was given in India. She wanted to learn more and work abroad.
Manju started working at Ipswich Hospital in 2004. She had her first son in 2005 before having twin boys in 2012.
The merger to create ESNEFT in 2018 led Manju to meet an inspirational and compassionate nursing leader who offered her the opportunity to work flexibly. This meant she could fit her working hours and the job she loved around her other important job as a mother.
Manju’s further academic achievements were made possible because of this flexibility. Since she arrived at Ipswich Hospital, Manju has completed a second degree in acute and critical care nursing, and a masters.
Manju now combines her corporate nursing role with a clinical role working in trauma and orthopaedics as an advanced clinical practitioner.
Manju has worked on many different projects. She is highly respected for her work to support deteriorating patients and in developing training tools that are now used across ESNEFT.
In her existing role Manju leads 121 advanced clinical practitioners and 350 non-medical prescribers.
She said: “ESNEFT has been a great place to work, where both my professional growth and family life have been valued and nurtured. I am grateful to the organisation and the fantastic team I have the privilege to work with for their guidance and support along the way.”
Kieren Hook: Tissue viability nurse, Bluebird Lodge, Ipswich
It was always Kieren’s dream to be a tissue viability nurse – but following that dream has been a long and winding road.
His career started in 2012 at Bluebird Lodge in Ipswich where he was a healthcare assistant. He then went on to do his three-year nursing degree in 2014, during which he became a dad in 2015 so he was juggling bank shifts at Bluebird Lodge alongside his studies.
Once he finished his he joined Aldeburgh Hospital’s community team for a year in 2017. He returned to Bluebird Lodge’s leg ulcer clinic in 2019 before joining Ipswich Hospital’s tissue viability team on secondment in 2020.
He then played a vital role in ESNEFT’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, supporting ward teams with caring for patients at a time when very little was known about the virus and its risks.
Kieren, 38, pictured above, described it as a “scary” time, particularly when he was seeing people in critical care who were a similar age to him dying. He also had a young family at home with his wife Kara, including their newborn daughter, Riley.
He returned to Bluebird Lodge in 2021 where he now works in the leg ulcer clinic full time.
Kieren said: “I have always been interested in wound care so to have the opportunity to come into the leg ulcer clinic and work upstairs with our inpatients too has all contributed to the greater picture.
“Wound care is very much my field of expertise and passion, so it was always my dream to be a tissue viability nurse and, one day, I’d like to educate others.
“I get to spend more time with our patients – they’re with us for long periods of time – so I get to know them really well and they get to know us. We’re very fortunate.”
Not only is Bluebird Lodge where his career flourished, it’s where Kieren first met Kara, who’s also a nurse, in 2013.
The pair are now married, following their wedding in 2019, and have two children – Harrison, nine, and Riley, four.
Jardine MacRae: newly qualified nurse, Fryatt Hospital, Harwich
Being a nurse means “everything” to Jardine, pictured above. She graduated just last month with a first-class degree in nursing.
Jardine said her achievement was only possible thanks to the nursing degree apprenticeship she completed at ESNEFT, with support from the Trust’s Talent for Care team.
She said: “The NHS has seen me through my preceptorship as a healthcare assistant, put me through two NVQs, helped me resit my GCSEs, let me progress to be a Band 4 therapy assistant and then finally fund my degree apprenticeship with the Trust’s nursing team.”
Jardine described her studies as one the “hardest but more rewarding experiences” of her life.
She said: “From a young age, I knew I wanted to work in healthcare. I’ve always enjoyed helping people. For ten years, before applying for the nursing apprenticeship, I worked in various roles within the NHS, which gave me a strong foundation and confirmed my passion for patient care. While I loved supporting patients in those roles, I wanted to take on more responsibility, expand my knowledge, and make a deeper impact.
“Nursing felt like the natural next step, not just a job, but a way to truly advocate for patients.”
For Jardine, what makes a good nurse is someone who is compassionate, professional, resilient, and fully present when it matters most. She experienced those qualities first hand when her sister, Zoe, received palliative care at home before she died from brain cancer in 2020.
Jardine said: “ESNEFT’s community nurses cared for her with such dignity and empathy, while supporting our whole family through the hardest time of our lives. Their kindness and strength left a lasting impression on me and inspired me to become a nurse who brings both skill and heart to every patient I care for.
“Being a nurse means everything to me. It’s not just a title, it’s who I am now. Being a nurse means being there at someone’s worst and helping them feel safe, heard, and cared for. It’s a privilege, and it’s changed how I see the world and myself.”
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