What is a nurse?

I recently found a box at the back of my wardrobe, probably the type of box most of us have, unless you have kept up your Marie Kondo New Year's resolutions, something I clearly have not. I call it my ‘Box of Delights’ as it's full of treasures from my past that I occasionally look at. This time it took me on a wonderful 15-minute trip down memory lane and back to my nursing past. I found nearly every name badge I've had since 1994.

This was my opportunity to time travel back down the white-tiled, disinfected corridors of Victorian hospitals where I learnt how to be a nurse, in new builds that did not stay new and shiny for long and memories of both summer and winter in under and over air-conditioned night shifts. It is fascinating how a plastic name badge can create such nostalgia and bring back memories of people, places, sadness, joy and progression. I was quite amazed by how many titles I've collected over my career to date: staff nurse, nursing team leader, practice development nurse, charge nurse, ward manager, site nurse practitioner and senior nurse. It was an exciting short roller-coaster ride, piecing together my nursing journey and it gave me time to consider my nursing future.