Throughout the month of May we’re celebrating all things nursing – it was International Nurses’ Day earlier this month. We’re also taking the opportunity to celebrate the Voices of Elysium, hearing from colleagues across the organisation.
Today we spoke with Nick Shaughnessy, Regional Director of Nursing for the CAMHS region at Elysium. He tells us about his nursing journey, what his role sees him do day-to-day and how he’d love to see nursing develop as a profession. 
Tell us about your role Nick?
It can be challenging but it’s great that it’s so diverse. There’s currently 10 hospitals and three care homes in the region and my role has me over-seeing nursing development, I go out and visit sites, spending part of my week at a site and that could be doing anything including training sessions, supervisions and meetings with nurses and Healthcare Assistants to get feedback on how things are at their site. I support some other sites when they have specific issues too. It’s quite a mixed bag!
Also doing some work for our head office on policy reviews and helping develop the management development programme along with some other projects. So there’s plenty to keep me busy!
Why did you become a nurse?
People think it might be because my Mum is a nurse, but that’s not why! I got into nursing because I knew someone who worked at Prestwich Hospital, a large psychiatric hospital. Talking with them and some other staff there I thought it would be an interesting job. So my Mum is a nurse but that played no part in my becoming a nurse!
Why did you choose mental health nursing in particular?
When I applied to do my nurse training my mum was a general nurse but that never appealed. It was always mental health nursing for me.
And was that the right decision?
It was everything I hoped it would be. We all have good days and bad days but I do enjoy my job and I still enjoy it. Even today many years later there are no two days the same, no two patients the same, no two staff members the same – and that keeps it fresh.
What do you enjoy particularly?
There is a lot of variety. I started nurse training in 1987, qualified in 1990, then worked in a whole range of different settings and different organisations from community to working in prison and secure hospitals – right across the board. Primarily it was in women’s mental health. For quite a long time I worked in women’s mental health and just before I joined Elysium, I worked in a female prison.
How has nursing changed?
In the time since I qualified, nursing has become a more complex role. I think that nursing has developed, the education side has developed and opportunities for nurses to progress has also developed. I think that there are now more exciting opportunities to progress while still remaining in clinical roles rather than just managerial pathways. I know that is something we’re exploring as an organisation and I think it would be really beneficial for the profession. Not everyone wants to be a manager or a hospital director, but it’s important they can still progress in their career too.
Currently progression is quite linear and, on the whole, it takes the nurse further from the patient and into more managerial spaces. That’s great for some but not others. Some people want to remain clinical. Now there’s nurse practitioners, nurse consultants and nurse prescribers – these are hugely responsible roles.
This has grown a lot in the time I’ve been a nurse.
What else is different?
When I qualified as an RMN there was no degree. It was the school of nursing – there’s not many of us who followed that path now, most of us have retired!
The whole way nurses have trained has changed. It’s moving towards a more professional model of training and development which is a positive. However, when I trained, I was salaried which made it easier from a financial perspective. Now you need to be able to get into university and study for a degree.
How does Elysium approach student nurses?
I think that as an organisation we’re very keen for students to have placements with us. We aim to get students across all of our services and appreciate what student nurses bring to the organisation. They are the nurses of the future and hopefully inquisitive, they challenge the status quo which is always a good thing.
Our Preceptorship Academy is unique – that’s where they get the input and opportunity to meet up on a regular basis and learn and share their experiences and support each other.
I compare that to being a student nurse when I trained – one day you were a student and couldn’t be left – the next day you were qualified and you were given the keys and you were in charge of the ward! That was your transition – but there was no development programme.
What would you like to see change?
Sometimes, nursing doesn’t have a strong voice within MDTs – not all the time – but sometimes it’s a challenge to be heard. It’s about being able to express the unique involvement nurses have with patients in the MDT meetings. Nurses and HCAs are the staff group that are with patients 24/7. That is unique and I feel that gives them a unique perspective on working with patients, because they have that knowledge and understanding. It’s about being able to translate that experience to more formal settings and to express that.
And from a developmental side, in my experience, as you move through from nurse to Ward Manager or Deputy Hospital Director, your career is progressing but your training wasn’t to be a manager. We learn management on the job as nurses. I’d love to see nurses provided with developmental training to support them in that managerial route so they have a better appreciation of all aspects of management.