FOR many people, New Year’s Eve was a celebration to bring in 2025. For one Basildon Hospital nurse, it has marked the start of her fifth decade working in Essex.
Jackie Smith, 64, from Stanford-Le-Hope, had her first shift on New Year’s Eve in 1984 at Orsett Hospital, before transferring to Basildon Hospital in 1989 – where she has remained ever since as a cardiology nurse, rising to become Senior Sister on James Mackenzie ward.
Jackie remembers her first shift vividly, saying: “It was New Year’s Eve, and I just arrived – there was no induction, no support, nothing. I was just thrown in and you learnt everything on your feet.”
Now, nurses are given a thorough induction before working on the wards, and extensive support by senior staff. There are also a variety of training and development programmes to develop their careers further, such as the nursing preceptorship.
Jackie has always treated patients with heart conditions as a cardiology nurse.“Cardiology was a new specialty for me. There is something to learn all the time, and I feel that you can make a huge difference to a patient’s journey. What’s key for me is the difference that you make to a patient at the end of the day, when you see them recover and go home.”Working on a cardiology ward is a team effort – something that has been key to Jackie staying so long in the profession.
“If I didn’t have my team, I probably wouldn’t be here. I never dread coming to work – I never get that Monday morning feeling because I love every day at work. That is because of the patients I get to treat but also because of the team that I work with.”As the Senior Sister who manages James Mackenzie ward, for Jackie, leadership is about setting an example.“I want to set a precedent for my team – being visible, speaking to my colleagues, and being able to support them and being available to them and to our patients.”
There have been a number of changes throughout Jackie’s time at Basildon Hospital. One that she is particularly proud of was the ward becoming dedicated just to heart conditions, after beds were moved there from Broomfield Hospital in 2020.
Dedicated specialist nurses and doctors means that patients are looked after by the same clinicians, who have the best skills to treat them.
That has made a real difference to patients, says Jackie: “Patient experience has improved, as patients are seen by the same consultant who is aware of everybody that’s on the ward. Each patient has a plan and our whole team know exactly what’s going on, which gives much more continuity of care to the patients.”
This is helping Jackie and her team to treat the ever-growing number of patients, who often have very complex conditions.
And so, after 40 years, is retirement on the cards? Not yet: “I still love with a passion the job that I do. There’s 10% of it that I find very frustrating and 90% that I love, and that’s an achievement in itself! I get an excitement in looking after a range of patients on a ward with lots of different conditions. And the team I work with are fantastic.”