How on earth did I get here?

I’m having a distinct feeling of imposter syndrome at the moment, it doesn’t feel like two minutes ago that I was being shown around the nurses accommodation at Macclesfield District General Hospital, a scared and timid 17 year old wondering what on earth I was getting myself into.

Now I’m nearly 40, I have experience in a wide variety of nursing roles and am now a ward manager on a stroke unit at my local hospital.

I have staff to lead and manage, budgets to keep to, patients to look after and a never ending list of jobs to tick off.

 Nursing is an ever evolving career, you never stand still and if you do it will move forward without you. 

So now in 2018, 21 years after I walked into that nurses accommodation I am a band 7 nurse, learning the role of a ward manager, how to behave at meetings, how to be more office based, how to manage staff according to to guidelines and policies of the trust I work for, the NMC and lots of other agencies involved in the running of the NHS and most importantly how to keep our patients and everyone else happy. 

Will I make it and be successful??? Only time will tell.