A Registered Nurse for more than 20 years, David Wilmott has worked across a number of services including acute and mental health and is now Director of Nursing at Cygnet Group. David has shared his story of how leaving school with little qualification didn’t hold him back in reaching his nursing ambitions.
I left school with two O Levels and I didn’t really have a career in mind, but nursing was in the family and my mum told me I’d be good at it. So I thought, ‘why not?’
I started as a Health Care Assistant at the Royal Gwent Hospital, in Newport, South Wales, in 1991 and I loved it, so I did three nights a week at night school to get my grades to train to be a student nurse.
I then spent 10 years in various clinical positions before moving into mental health commissioning and leadership. I joined Cygnet Health Care in 2018.
Having struggled academically at school, becoming a registered nurse was the proudest day of my life. It felt a real achievement.
After that, becoming a ward manager was the most amazing job in the world, because it gives you the unique ability to change the quality of care for patients. No doubt it’s one of the most challenging roles, but also rewarding. It gives you the chance to recruit and develop nurses, influence standards and shape the quality of care. It was an immensely exciting time.
I moved into a leadership role because it provided a real opportunity to influence nursing care on a much larger scale. There’s scope to guide the direction of nursing within an organisation but also through wider networks such as the MHN Directors Council which influence national programmes of work.
I am proud that here at Cygnet there are lots of roles available in nursing and more career pathways opening up for support workers, carers and nurses. Wherever you are in your career there are opportunities so don’t be afraid to ask questions about how colleagues, friends or relatives got to where they are.
Other people’s successes can be an inspiration.