Beverley Bostock

• Queen’s Nurse
• Advanced Nurse Practitioner Mann Cottage Surgery
• President Elect Primary Care Cardiovascular Society
• Asthma Lead, Association of Respiratory Nurses
• Primary Care Respiratory Society Executive Committee Member
• Editor in Chief, Practice Nurse Journal
• Independent Training Consultant 

I never wanted to be a nurse – wasn’t one of those who dressed up in a nurse’s uniform as a child, didn’t have any family members who were healthcare professionals, and yet here I am, all these years later: a nurse I became and a nurse I still am.  My key subjects at school were languages: French, German and Latin, if that counts.  After finishing my A and AS levels, the plan was for me to go to university and study French and drama.  I loved drama, performed in all of my school plays between the ages of 4 to 18 and was awarded the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts gold medal for the speaking of verse and prose at the age of 16 – the earliest age it was possible to enter for it.  However, as the time for university approached, I felt more and more disillusioned with the prospect of three more years of classroom-based activities (clearly no-one had explained to me what uni life was really about…) and I longed to do something ‘useful’.  As a result, after pondering the armed forces, I decided to apply for nursing.  My sixth form head, an imperious woman who struck fear into us all, was appalled.  My parents were summoned to the school and instructed to make me change my mind.  “If only we could”, they said.  In no time at all I was signed up for the September intake at St George’s Hospital, London. (They had a new intake of around 25 student nurses every six weeks in those glory days!)  I was so excited – the big city!  And Hyde Park Corner!  The glamour – the shopping – the nightlife!  I’d made the big time at last.  As luck would have it, though, I ended up being in one of the first intakes to be based at Tooting.  Hey ho – at least it was famous as a result of the comedy show Citizen Smith, where Robert Lindsay’s famous cry ‘Freedom for Tooting!’ was known throughout the land. 

It was during my training that I first discovered the existence of practice nurses.  I was immediately smitten.  I hated the hierarchy in hospitals (I’m sure it’s different now) and the lure of the autonomy of the practice nurse pulled me in so that once I’d qualified and done a year on a medical ward, I applied for a practice nurse role immediately.  I was lucky to be mentored by some amazing nurses as there was no specific training for practice nurses then – we just learned on the job and through reading, evaluating and synthesising, developed the role in-house.  I had the support of some outstanding GPs along the way, some with superb business acumen, other who were exemplary clinicians.  I always credit Dr Ian Bayman with my career, truth be told.  He was a huge advocate of the Socratic method of teaching and forced me to think for myself on a whole range of clinical conundrums.  I think this, and many years of summarising medical records, provided me with the knowledge base I needed to become, as Alice would say, ‘curiouser and curiouser’. 

Having skipped the degree (my own GP had advised against a nursing degree saying I should ‘do it properly, hands-on’ (hmmm, a subject for debate if ever there was one!) I finally caught up and completed my nursing degree followed by an MSc in respiratory care.  My most exciting course of academic study, however, was the MA in medical ethics and law I did at Keele University, which informs every day of my practice and my teaching and feeds the frustrated lawyer hiding inside me.

So where am I now?  As well, as being married to my teenage sweetheart and having a clutch of adult offspring, I’m working at a lovely practice in the glorious Cotswolds with a fabulous team, teaching across the UK for different training organisations within and outside of the NHS, Asthma Lead for the Association of Respiratory Nurses, President-Elect of the Primary Care Cardiovascular Society, a member of the Executive Committee of the Primary Care Respiratory Society,  and Editor-in-Chief of Practice Nurse Journal.  I speak at conferences, write for publication and I’m involved in lots of national working groups which aim to improve the care given to people living with long-term conditions.  It’s a brilliant mix of theory and practice, each informing the other. 

I think back to my sixth form head saying ‘we don’t produce nurses at this girls’ grammar school’ and think how, if she were still with us, she might reconsider her point of view.  For me, nursing has been, and continues to be, an incredible journey, with exciting discoveries to be made every week.  My curiosity and enthusiasm has never waned and the thought of retirement, over 40 years since I started my career, seems bizarre – I’m just getting started!