Lynn Rodrigues' story
Lynn Rodrigues is our Lead Nurse Infection Prevention & Control she tells us about her career of thirty years as a nurse in the NHS.
“My career began as a student nurse on 25 May 1983, spending my first six months on a vascular surgical ward. We were provided with seven dress uniforms and wore pre-made paper hats, frequently knocked off especially whilst carrying out Australian lifts, long since banned, and had a cape for moving across site from the nurses’ home to the main hospital. Hospital stays were much longer, on average five to seven days for an appendicectomy and everyone was shaved nipple to knee pre-operatively. Salt baths were still considered necessary and when asking how much salt to add, no one knew, though eventually it was said a bath full, and the practice stopped. Patients sat on rubber rings to stop pressure sores, though they caused more than they prevented and were uncomfortable. Back rounds were routine, taking clean plastic and rough, well washed, drawsheets on the trolley whilst using a multitude of pressure care options such as egg white, oxygen, lotions, sprays and creams.
“The nursing officer was still someone to dread and on catching sight of her, students would run and hide behind patient curtains or into the sluice to warn others on the adjoining ward – ‘Jones is on her way!’.
“After qualifying as a registered nurse (RN) and moving to Peterborough, I found myself working in mental health services and converting to become a registered mental nurse (RMN) spending 17 years there, eventually focussing on acute and older people’s services. By the time I left in 2003 I was ward manager of an older people’s assessment ward.
“At this point I found myself in infection prevention and control (IPC). I had carried the passion since my RN days, never expecting to end up working as an IPC nurse. Completing the infection control degree through day release at the University of Hertfordshire, I worked in community settings under Huntingdon Primary Care Trust. Continual changes in the NHS saw my career pathway take the first Cambridgeshire and Peterborough role of IPC nurse in commissioning. It has been quite a journey of change over the past 20 years, leading, managing, and developing a team, as well as taking development opportunities myself. In 2014 I gained the Queen’s Nurse title through, ironically, a national campaign - Stop the Pressure for reducing pressure ulcers. Through my years of experience in this role, today I can influence practice at local, regional, and national level. As an active member of the Infection Prevention Society, I sit on the Management Executive Group as England branch lead and East of England branch co-ordinator.
“Nursing today is a very different experience being fast paced, highly technical, sicker patients living longer through advancements in medicine and surgery.
“It is a great career with the right approach to what it really means to be a nurse. Compassion, humility, and tenacity, learn from your mistakes. Listen to the patient and family, they are often the experts of long-term conditions and textbooks are only a guide. Keep the patient at the centre, remember they are a whole person, a human being with emotions and feelings. With the education and training available, opportunities to specialise and transferability of skills, patients deserve the best care we can provide – remember, one day you will want the best care. You can make a difference!”