How to break through that nervous barrier and find your passion with Natalie

Have you ever wanted to do more with your career but felt afraid to step out of your comfort zone or unsure of what path to take?

If so - you’re not alone!

Today, we’re chatting with Natalie from the Medical Nursing Academy. Natalie has had a very squiggly career so far, juggling nursing studies alongside single parenthood AND lockdown. 

Natalie shares her experiences navigating training, working in a busy hospital, and breaking through nerves and impostor syndrome to find her passion for emergency and medical nursing.

Wherever you are in your nursing journey, I know you’ll find so much value in Natalie’s story.

A happy accident

Like so many of us, Natalie fell into nursing by complete chance. Having moved to Bristol, she stumbled across the vet nursing course at Hartpury University, looking for something related to animal care.

Juggling placements whilst in lockdown, balancing studying, placements, parenting, and personal loss was not easy, but she completed her training in 2022 despite all these challenges. She moved to a busy hospital, where she got stuck in with first-opinion nursing and worked as a twilight nurse on the emergency team.

Finding a balance between referral and GP

We all know that referral nursing is often put on a pedestal. Still, the reality is that there are SO many opportunities to get hands-on experience and do more with your medical patients in general practice. And there are many advanced nursing skills that GP hospitals have the facilities for, too!

Natalie’s current clinic is a busy 24-hour hospital with a varied caseload. She really gets to make the most of this in her role as a Twilight nurse. Her role gives her the flexibility to nurse both day and night cases, giving her a vast range of skills to practice.

“One day, I could be hopping into surgery to take over from a nurse, monitoring spinal surgeries, ex-laps, cystotomies, stitch-ups, radiographs, ultrasounds. Some days I can be taking over late clinics - performing pre and post-op checks, health care annual checkups, wellness clinics, nutrition, desensitisation, nail clips, anal glands and more. In addition to these, my role focuses on the inpatient care of our animals overnight - ensuring they have their medications on time, their beds are clean and dry, and if they have any drains in - managing these or doing bandage care, physiotherapy, walking them and ensuring they are fed and watered.”

And then there was medicine

With such a large part of Natalie’s role being inpatient-focused, it was only natural that her passion for medical nursing would grow. Why? Not only does it provide you with the opportunity to learn and improve your standard of care continually, but it’s also SO rewarding! The time, dedication, and love that go into nursing your medical patients are more than worth it when your anorexic cat decides to eat or that intensive patient you’ve been nursing all week finally improves and gets to leave the hospital.

“When you’ve had a patient in who has been critically ill, and you’ve finally brought them through the other side - when they start eating consistently, or you’re able to finally wean them off their strong painkillers, they walk by themselves, and that tail starts to wag or a purr returns - this to me is the most rewarding part.”

Her favourite cases are foreign body retrievals because they require extensive aftercare, especially nutritional care, to maintain gut motility and integrity and prevent complications like sepsis.

I asked Natalie what her advice was for other nurses wanting to pursue a medical niche - and it was simple: Go for it! And remember, you’re never alone - there are always a ton of other nurses in that situation to chat with and learn from. Every single nurse with a medical niche started feeling nervous, battling impostor syndrome, 

“Do it! It’s incredibly rewarding! I 100% recommend looking at other nurses who have gone into medical nursing on social media - there are so many great nurse accounts out there now sharing hundreds of useful tips/tricks and interesting articles - it’s a really inclusive and friendly community!”

But finding a niche isn’t always the right thing for everyone

In the age of social media and nurses diversifying and finding specialist interests, it can be too easy to put pressure on yourself if you’ve not yet found out what you enjoy most.

Natalie’s advice? Don’t rush. There are so many different options out there for VNs, and remember—general practice is a niche in itself! There’s no one right answer or way to do things. Take time to explore what cases you enjoy most and the sorts of skills that you really enjoy using. Remember that everyone’s journey through practice looks different—don’t compare yours to someone else’s.

“The most valuable thing I’ve learnt so far is not to panic! Don’t rush into finding a niche or a speciality - there are so many options and routes out there, and the reality is that you don’t even have to pick anything! If you enjoy ultrasound and dentistry, there’s absolutely no reason why you can’t complete further qualifications in both. Don’t panic. You have time and might chance upon something you didn’t even think was an interest of yours, and it’ll end up being your absolute favourite.”

We also know that self-confidence wobbles, little doubts, and impostor syndrome commonly cause career hiccups. These tend to creep in when we’re trying to grow or break out of our comfort zones. In Natalie’s case, overcoming those has been one of her biggest challenges in practice. Her advice is to keep looking back at how far you’ve come because you’d be amazed at how much you develop without even realising it.

“I have definitely struggled with imposter syndrome in my career already - all I can do is keep learning more and keep trying. When I look back at the beginning and how nervous I was, and now not even two years in, how much I’ve grown and changed - there is a definite improvement, and I can’t wait to see what the next few years bring.”

In Natalie’s case, her passion for medical nursing and inpatient care led her to the medical nursing academy

Natalie joined the academy because she wanted to learn in a relaxed but informative environment, surrounded by people who shared her goal of becoming bigger advocates and improving patient care.

“I came across the academy through Instagram and enrolled on the calculations course that was being advertised as calculations can really make my brain hurt sometimes! I absolutely loved how relaxed and informative the session was, so when I heard about the academy doors opening, I knew I wanted to be part of it. Laura’s teaching style and absolute wealth of knowledge on medical nursing are incredible, and the academy is such a friendly and positive place to be! Everyone is there for the same reason - to be better nurses, bigger patient advocates, and to make friends with like-minded individuals.”

Since then, Natalie has become more confident in advocating for her patients, cemented her knowledge of the different conditions she sees in practice, and, most importantly, felt more confident in her skills.

“It’s made me feel confident that there is so much more I can do as a nurse to help my patients - each topic that Laura covers is full of detail, tips and tricks to help you understand the various conditions we see in practice better. It’s such a positive and welcoming community.”

And what skills can we use with our medical patients?

In short, there are a ton of skills we can use with our medical patients! Natalie’s particular favourite area is nutrition, and we all know that this is a huge area nurses can get involved in.

Even things like performing consistent nutritional assessments for all of your inpatients, calculating their energy requirements, and formulating a feeding plan for EVERY inpatient—not just those with feeding tubes—are huge areas where we can make a big difference in patient care.

“I always try to ensure I’ve calculated their RER and try to be consistent with writing down what I’ve tried and how much to keep a good record of what has worked and what hasn’t. There is such a huge range of different diets available to us; don’t be afraid to try them!
And always try warming food up if your patient is reluctant to eat! And don’t underestimate dry food - I’ve had quite a few patients turn out to be biscuit lovers!”

So next time you’re feeling a bit stuck and stagnant in practice, ask yourself, “What skills can I use to improve things for this patient?” and focus on not just the care you’re giving but the impact this is having on you, your career, and your development too. Never be afraid to advocate for your patients and yourself. Celebrate those wins, and constantly reflect on how far you’ve come. Nothing ever grows in comfort zones, and there will always be people around you to support you.

Want to grab a free sneak peek inside the Medical Nursing Academy? You can watch a ton of free lessons here.