Today for International Nurses Day, one of our information development nurses Ali shares five things she loves about her job.
I’ve been a nurse for 25 years. Since I qualified, I’ve worked in medical and haematology wards, been a clinical nurse specialist in haemato-oncology, and a nurse information specialist on a cancer helpline before joining Macmillan’s Cancer Information Development team.
I love my job because:
1. It’s worthwhile
I love doing work that makes a difference. Cancer can make people feel they have lost control of their lives. But, good quality information can help change that.
We’ve won awards for our information, but the greatest satisfaction comes from reading feedback from people who contact us to tell us how our information helped them get through a difficult time.
2. I get to use and develop my skills and clinical experience
Before I trained as a nurse, I studied English literature at university. I’m really lucky to have found a job where I get to combine my love of words with my interest and passion for cancer care.
3. I’m always learning
It’s probably not surprising that someone who writes information loves finding out about things. Keeping up with changes in cancer care and treatments is an important part of my job. It is also important to keep up my skills in producing information so I also get regular training in things like writing skills, project management, respecting diversity and making our information accessible to as many people as possible.
4. Variety and the chance to be creative
We produce information in lots of formats. This means I get the chance to be involved with colleagues in other projects; such as scripting and storyboarding animations, planning videos, or infographics and tweeting about our information.
5. I work with great people
I work as part of team of nurses, editors, editorial assistants, content channel editors and managers. Everyone I work with really cares about making our information as good as it can be which makes it a very positive place to work. And, we couldn’t do this without the people who read our information and review it. They are all volunteers, people affected by cancer, nurses, doctors and other health professionals who generously give us their time to share their knowledge and experience with us.
Happy nurses day to all my colleagues around the world. I’m proud and privileged to be one of you.
To see what else Macmillan's cancer information team has been blogging about, please visit our blog home page! You can subscribe to receive our blogs by email or RSS too.
We're with you every step of the way
The Macmillan team is here to help. Our cancer support specialists can answer your questions, offer support, or simply listen if you need a chat. Call us free on 0808 808 00 00.
Comments? Feel free to add them below (you need to be logged in).
Keep in touch Follow Macmillan’s cancer information team on Twitter @mac_cancerinfo
