“Keep busy and learn from everybody. The best piece of advice I’ve ever been told is to make friends with the Band 2s. They are the clinical support workers, and they know who, what and where everything is. They know everything.”
Gillian Cameron was 46 years old when she enrolled at university for the first time.
She never had much success at school. However, looking back, it was a case of “wouldn’t rather than couldn’t” as she would miss a lot of lessons and never applied herself in class. The university life wasn’t for her, she thought.
Instead, Gillian spent 25 years supporting some of Edinburgh’s most vulnerable children. She worked at a respite centre for children with learning disabilities, helped children with dyslexia, dyspraxia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and provided daytime care for young people who have had a challenging start to life.
One of Gillian’s colleagues from the respite centre became a mature student and it prompted Gillian to consider the possibility herself. As a single parent there were financial matters to consider, but after researching the loans and bursaries available she realised that becoming a student was achievable.
Gillian studied Child Nursing at Edinburgh Napier and really cherished her time at the University. She never missed a lecture and graduated as one of the top-performing students of her year.
After graduating, Gillian took up a job working in the intensive care unit at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, otherwise known as Sick Kids. Intensive care was Gillian’s preferred area to work in and she was over the moon to get the job. She was in this job for two years and loved supporting the kids and their families but decided that she wanted to work in a different environment. This led her to the Royal Blind School in Morningside.
The Royal Blind School provides specialist education for those with visual impairments and offers full-time residential care for people with complex needs. Gillian became their school and residential nurse. Some of the pupils live at the school for 52 weeks of the year and therefore it is a completely different environment to Gillian’s previous job.
This role was challenging as it took place during the Covid pandemic. Many of the school’s pupils are considered vulnerable and therefore the school had to take extra precautions to stop the spread of the virus. This meant that teachers taught from their homes and all visitors were prohibited. It was a lonely time for everyone, but Gillian and her colleagues tried to make the experience as normal for the children as they could. Despite a great fondness for the job, Gillian needed a position that would guarantee that she would have school holidays off and therefore found a new employer.
In summer 2021 Gillian joined Fettes College as their school nurse. There are six nurses in total at the school and they are responsible for such things as carrying out the immunisation programme, teaching sex-ed and providing mental health support. Gillian also provides pitch-side first aid for the sports teams and has to deal with sports injuries. The job is a different turn of pace to Gillian’s previous roles, but she enjoys working with the students and hopes to spend the rest of her career at Fettes.
Read Gillian’s final bit of advice
“Write everything down – you’re going to need it for the Royal College of Nursing revalidation. Get a diary and record everything you did, all the courses you went on and everything you’ve learnt. You will forget otherwise!”