Careers
If you would like to write for our careers section email the editor at [email protected] or @NScareersEd
Abigail Masterson says consultancy allows her to influence change in nursing and help others get the most out of their organisations
CONSULT THE EXPERT For me, consultancy is the perfect job. It allows me to combine my skills and experiences, whether I’m facilitating working groups to agree a strategy for action or helping organisations take better decisions. Consulting enables me to stay in touch with contemporary practice and use the skills I gained as a nurse teacher and nurse researcher.
NATHAN CLARKE
How do you use your skills in your present job? I am fascinated by people and organisations, helping them thrive and use their resources wisely. I get invited in to work with committed, enthusiastic people to help them improve and develop. What fascinates you about nursing? Good nursing transforms lives for patients and families and through our impact on health systems. Nursing is an important and complex activity, but we still have no way of convincing policymakers and society to invest in it properly.
Abigail Masterson
NURSING STANDARD
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Who inspired you? I have met many inspirational nurses – inspirational because of their work and the values they modelled, and inspirational because of their belief in me and the opportunities they enabled for me and others. Memorable role models include the senior nurse who said ‘don’t just think about the next job, but about the one after that when planning your next career move’. My nurse manager ensured I was well prepared for my first ward sister post and has acted as a mentor ever since. Former RCN general secretary Christine Hancock was an inspirational public figure and a fabulous manager who knew all her staff. More recently, it has been the many clients who have trusted me to work with them and their organisations. What career achievements are you most proud of? I have had many proud moments, from enabling an older man to take his wife home to die 30 years ago when this wasn’t really done, to developing one of the first master’s degrees in nursing, to getting my first book published and influencing policy through my research and evaluation work. All involved breaking the rules in a good way to bring about important changes for individuals or the profession. If you could start all over again, would you change anything? If nurse consultant roles had existed in the 1980s, I might have been tempted to stay in clinical practice longer, in a role with patient contact.
A week in the life Facilitate a group of health professionals from Europe and the US to develop an influencing strategy for a particular client group. Interview senior nurses about a leadership programme to make a case for further investment. Shortlist candidates for a prestigious award. Present at a conference for professionals from the NHS, independent and charity sectors. Analyse project data. Plan a learning event. How do you deal with success and failure? I find both success and failure motivating. Seeing patients receiving a better service and students learning new things spurs me on. I find failure devastating in the immediate aftermath but, with support, I am able pretty quickly to turn the devastation into a drive to succeed and ‘show them’. What personal and professional attributes would you say are essential to be effective? Self-belief, determination and being part of a team or organisation where you can flourish. What big challenge in nursing still has to be addressed? To lift our heads up, imagine the possibilities and assume our leadership to influence the health system and structures thus enabling the best nursing to happen. Abigail Masterson is director of Abi Masterson Consulting
december 3 :: vol 29 no 14 :: 2014 63
28-11-2014 13:09:00 from RCNi.com by ${individualUser.displayName} on Nov 19, 2015. For personal use only. No other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
If you would like to write for our careers section email the editor at [email protected] or @NScareersEd
Abigail Masterson says consultancy allows her to influence change in nursing and help others get the most out of their organisations
CONSULT THE EXPERT For me, consultancy is the perfect job. It allows me to combine my skills and experiences, whether I’m facilitating working groups to agree a strategy for action or helping organisations take better decisions. Consulting enables me to stay in touch with contemporary practice and use the skills I gained as a nurse teacher and nurse researcher.
NATHAN CLARKE
How do you use your skills in your present job? I am fascinated by people and organisations, helping them thrive and use their resources wisely. I get invited in to work with committed, enthusiastic people to help them improve and develop. What fascinates you about nursing? Good nursing transforms lives for patients and families and through our impact on health systems. Nursing is an important and complex activity, but we still have no way of convincing policymakers and society to invest in it properly.
Abigail Masterson
NURSING STANDARD
NS_0143.inddDownloaded 63
Who inspired you? I have met many inspirational nurses – inspirational because of their work and the values they modelled, and inspirational because of their belief in me and the opportunities they enabled for me and others. Memorable role models include the senior nurse who said ‘don’t just think about the next job, but about the one after that when planning your next career move’. My nurse manager ensured I was well prepared for my first ward sister post and has acted as a mentor ever since. Former RCN general secretary Christine Hancock was an inspirational public figure and a fabulous manager who knew all her staff. More recently, it has been the many clients who have trusted me to work with them and their organisations. What career achievements are you most proud of? I have had many proud moments, from enabling an older man to take his wife home to die 30 years ago when this wasn’t really done, to developing one of the first master’s degrees in nursing, to getting my first book published and influencing policy through my research and evaluation work. All involved breaking the rules in a good way to bring about important changes for individuals or the profession. If you could start all over again, would you change anything? If nurse consultant roles had existed in the 1980s, I might have been tempted to stay in clinical practice longer, in a role with patient contact.
A week in the life Facilitate a group of health professionals from Europe and the US to develop an influencing strategy for a particular client group. Interview senior nurses about a leadership programme to make a case for further investment. Shortlist candidates for a prestigious award. Present at a conference for professionals from the NHS, independent and charity sectors. Analyse project data. Plan a learning event. How do you deal with success and failure? I find both success and failure motivating. Seeing patients receiving a better service and students learning new things spurs me on. I find failure devastating in the immediate aftermath but, with support, I am able pretty quickly to turn the devastation into a drive to succeed and ‘show them’. What personal and professional attributes would you say are essential to be effective? Self-belief, determination and being part of a team or organisation where you can flourish. What big challenge in nursing still has to be addressed? To lift our heads up, imagine the possibilities and assume our leadership to influence the health system and structures thus enabling the best nursing to happen. Abigail Masterson is director of Abi Masterson Consulting
december 3 :: vol 29 no 14 :: 2014 63
28-11-2014 13:09:00 from RCNi.com by ${individualUser.displayName} on Nov 19, 2015. For personal use only. No other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
