Becca joined Sciensus in 2019 as an Intravenous (IV) Therapy nurse but she was keen to expand her skills so she could administer chemotherapy in the home. It wasn’t long before she was on her way to the next stage in her career progression.
Becca had a background in community nursing and knew that she wanted to stay in a similar role, but she was eager to become a better-qualified clinician too.
“Administering chemotherapy in the home is a much broader role than IV and requires more training,” says Becca. “It was the route I really wanted to take, but I didn’t want to go back to university full time.”
Positive opportunities for career progression
She discussed her career goals in her job interview and Sciensus agreed to fund and support the training. By September the following year, Becca’s training had begun.
“Career progression and professional development are some of the real benefits of working at Sciensus. We have regular practice development reviews where we discuss our goals and they’re happy to support any learning we’d like to do.”
Becca is keen to move into a managerial role in the future and is being well supported with managerial and leadership courses and mentoring.
Becoming part of the family
While Becca hopes to move into a Sciensus managerial role in the future, she’s enjoying her current role as a chemotherapy nurse and says she especially likes the variety of the work.
She explains that the start of the week often involves lots of blood tests and patient assessments to check if they are well enough for treatment. Then, later in the week, she will administer treatment, which could be intravenous or in tablet form.
“It’s one to one as well, so patients get to know their nurses and we get to know them. It means we can pick up on things more easily,” she says. “It is rare but, if a patient has a reaction, for example, we’re sat by them, and we can notice and respond very quickly to deal with the reaction safely.”
Becca believes this one-to-one care helps her to build strong relationships with her patients too.
“We get a better all-round understanding of the patient this way. They tell us that we become part of the family, which is true – I see some of my patients more than I see my own parents!”
Keeping life as normal as possible
She also loves the fact that she can help people continue to live their life to the full, even during treatment. One aspect of this is treating patients in other UK locations other than the home if that’s what works best for them.
“We’re community based, and we cover a wide area, so it doesn’t tie patients to being at home,” she explains. “I’ve seen a patient who was at a holiday park and another who was having a break away in a hotel. We can even see people at work if it’s safe, feasible and there’s a private area where we can treat them comfortably.”