Careers
Inspiring healthiness Somerset health visitor Karin Downer is inspired by encouraging healthy lifestyles in children and families. Her work with new parents builds on her previous role as a school-nurse lead and practice teacher in Portsmouth, for which she qualified as a teacher so she would know how to teach children and the next generation of school nurses. She spoke to Erin Dean KARIN DOWNER trained in Portsmouth and spent the first ten years of her career working in hospital settings. After two years on a surgical ward, she spent eight working in an intensive care unit, where she became a senior staff nurse. ‘As much as I loved intensive care, it was very much focused on getting patients well enough to get them back to the wards; you didn’t get to find out about how they lived or worked. One day, I was sitting in the staff room and I was thinking that, if there was a degree in health promotion, I would really like to do that and a week later I saw a poster at work about a part-time degree over two years.’ After completing the degree, a vacancy for a new post as a health-promotion school nurse, focusing on teaching children about healthy lifestyles, came up in Portsmouth. To support her work in this role, Ms Downer decided to take a postgraduate certificate in education. Master’s Five years later, the role became more concerned with generic school nursing. Ms Downer responded by completing a master’s degree in public health in 2008, qualifying as a specialist community public health nurse in school nursing. She then returned to work in the Portsmouth school nursing service, where she undertook her practice-teacher qualification. Ms Downer was approached by the University of Southampton, which offered her a secondment of two days a week for two years as academic lead to train NURSING MANAGEMENT
school nurses. ‘They wanted an active practice teacher who could link theory with practice. When the Nursing and Midwifery Council revalidated the course, the university was highly commended for having a practising school nurse among the teachers. My teaching qualification and experience really helped me with this role.’ In October 2010, Ms Downer launched a six-month pilot project to reduce the amount of health-related absence from schools in Portsmouth. A pocket guide called Should My Child Go to School Today? was developed and distributed to the homes of every school-aged child in the pilot area. General advice was included in the leaflet: about taking children to appointments outside of the school day, bringing them into school before and after appointments and, if they are absent in the morning but feel better in the afternoon, they can come into school then. Daily drop-in clinics that parents could attend with their children for further advice and prescribing were initiated too. Attendance in all the schools in the pilot area improved universally, even among families with children who were on track to become persistent absentees, while attendance in the secondary school in the pilot area increased by 5%. The Department for Education has contacted Ms Downer to discuss how elements of the health-related absences project can be incorporated into government advice on attendance. In 2012, Ms Downer was promoted to school-nurse team lead in Portsmouth,
where she and another team leader managed 16 school nurses, covering 75 schools, including 11 secondary schools. ‘It was a massive learning curve, particularly when it came to the human resources paperwork. I thought, naively, “I am a school nurse so I can lead a team,” but I had a lot to learn on the management side. ‘I have just completed a releasing potential leadership course with a mix of other leaders and managers from Solent NHS Trust and I found it really useful. I have found that some things, such as recruitment of staff can take a long time. I also enjoy the challenge of helping people to develop and reach their potential. My least favourite part of the job is dealing with budget and paperwork.’ Nursing awards Ms Downer’s work in Portsmouth and her work on reducing health-related absences from school led to her being a finalist in the 2014 Nursing Standard nursing awards. In her latest challenge as a health visitor for Somerset Partnership NHS Trust, Ms Downer is working with families during pregnancy and until their children are five. ‘The public health nursing training and experience I have gained from my role in school nursing will enhance my role as a health visitor,’ she says. ‘I am hoping my teaching and coaching experience will enable me to help families feel empowered to make healthy lifestyle choices.’ Erin Dean is a freelance writer October 2014 | Volume 21 | Number 6 39
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Inspiring healthiness Somerset health visitor Karin Downer is inspired by encouraging healthy lifestyles in children and families. Her work with new parents builds on her previous role as a school-nurse lead and practice teacher in Portsmouth, for which she qualified as a teacher so she would know how to teach children and the next generation of school nurses. She spoke to Erin Dean KARIN DOWNER trained in Portsmouth and spent the first ten years of her career working in hospital settings. After two years on a surgical ward, she spent eight working in an intensive care unit, where she became a senior staff nurse. ‘As much as I loved intensive care, it was very much focused on getting patients well enough to get them back to the wards; you didn’t get to find out about how they lived or worked. One day, I was sitting in the staff room and I was thinking that, if there was a degree in health promotion, I would really like to do that and a week later I saw a poster at work about a part-time degree over two years.’ After completing the degree, a vacancy for a new post as a health-promotion school nurse, focusing on teaching children about healthy lifestyles, came up in Portsmouth. To support her work in this role, Ms Downer decided to take a postgraduate certificate in education. Master’s Five years later, the role became more concerned with generic school nursing. Ms Downer responded by completing a master’s degree in public health in 2008, qualifying as a specialist community public health nurse in school nursing. She then returned to work in the Portsmouth school nursing service, where she undertook her practice-teacher qualification. Ms Downer was approached by the University of Southampton, which offered her a secondment of two days a week for two years as academic lead to train NURSING MANAGEMENT
school nurses. ‘They wanted an active practice teacher who could link theory with practice. When the Nursing and Midwifery Council revalidated the course, the university was highly commended for having a practising school nurse among the teachers. My teaching qualification and experience really helped me with this role.’ In October 2010, Ms Downer launched a six-month pilot project to reduce the amount of health-related absence from schools in Portsmouth. A pocket guide called Should My Child Go to School Today? was developed and distributed to the homes of every school-aged child in the pilot area. General advice was included in the leaflet: about taking children to appointments outside of the school day, bringing them into school before and after appointments and, if they are absent in the morning but feel better in the afternoon, they can come into school then. Daily drop-in clinics that parents could attend with their children for further advice and prescribing were initiated too. Attendance in all the schools in the pilot area improved universally, even among families with children who were on track to become persistent absentees, while attendance in the secondary school in the pilot area increased by 5%. The Department for Education has contacted Ms Downer to discuss how elements of the health-related absences project can be incorporated into government advice on attendance. In 2012, Ms Downer was promoted to school-nurse team lead in Portsmouth,
where she and another team leader managed 16 school nurses, covering 75 schools, including 11 secondary schools. ‘It was a massive learning curve, particularly when it came to the human resources paperwork. I thought, naively, “I am a school nurse so I can lead a team,” but I had a lot to learn on the management side. ‘I have just completed a releasing potential leadership course with a mix of other leaders and managers from Solent NHS Trust and I found it really useful. I have found that some things, such as recruitment of staff can take a long time. I also enjoy the challenge of helping people to develop and reach their potential. My least favourite part of the job is dealing with budget and paperwork.’ Nursing awards Ms Downer’s work in Portsmouth and her work on reducing health-related absences from school led to her being a finalist in the 2014 Nursing Standard nursing awards. In her latest challenge as a health visitor for Somerset Partnership NHS Trust, Ms Downer is working with families during pregnancy and until their children are five. ‘The public health nursing training and experience I have gained from my role in school nursing will enhance my role as a health visitor,’ she says. ‘I am hoping my teaching and coaching experience will enable me to help families feel empowered to make healthy lifestyle choices.’ Erin Dean is a freelance writer October 2014 | Volume 21 | Number 6 39
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