I became a civil servant in 1996 after working more than 30 years as a nurse and a manager in the NHS. Early in my nursing career, I took 10 years out to focus on raising my 3 boys before returning to the profession.
During the last seven years, I have worked as Chief Nursing Officer and Director General at the Department of Health. I have provided leadership to over 600,000 nurses and midwives and ensure that the development of policy recognises the contribution that nurses and midwives make, not just to delivering services, but to designing them.
One of my proudest achievements has been leading changes to prescribing legislation, which now means that appropriately qualified nurses and midwives can independently prescribe, improving services to patients and giving greater autonomy to nurses.
As Director General, I have been responsible for leading the reduction of healthcare associated infections. Working with ministers, a range of clinicians and the service, there has been a reduction of 81% in MRSA and in Clostridium Difficile infections over the last seven years. This improvement is being sustained and has meant that patients who would have become very sick, and in some cases died, have not.
During my time as a civil servant, I have been privileged to have led the development of policy which has made such a positive impact for patients who use the health service.