Michelle Dalgarno was nominated by Glasgow Caledonian University for excellence in her Postgraduate community nursing studies. We were delighted to award her the QNIS academic prize and she has written a short blog about her experience.
To be awarded this academic award from the QNIS on completion of my PgDip in advancing professional practice has been the silver lining on my academic journey. I am honoured to be nominated by amazing personal tutor Evelyn McElhinney at GCU.
My career in primary care began in 2004, five years after qualifying as a RGN. My passion for community nursing was elicited by the amazing District Nurses, staff nurses and health care assistants in my new team, who ran a tight but compassionate ship in Glasgow South Sector. My primary care journey has offered me many professional and academic opportunities over the last 17 years, including a graduate certificate in primary care and a Specialist Practitioner Qualification in District Nursing. However, my appetite to learn and develop persisted beyond qualifying as a District Nurse, and in 2019 I began my journey in Advanced Practice at GCU, through my new role as a trainee Advanced Nurse Practitioner in East Dunbartonshire. Undertaking this PgDip during a pandemic has offered me the steepest but most rewarding learning curve, resulting in real personal and professional development. Throughout the pandemic, health care services have had to adapt and transform to the ever-changing challenges and I am privileged to be part of a health and social care partnership who are dedicated to providing responsive and anticipatory person-centred care. For me, my education at GCU has offered much more than knowledge and qualifications; it has encouraged self-discovery and a realisation of my own strengths, limitations and potential.
Choose a job you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.
I have thrived on my education at GCU and my professional development within Primary care services which has led me to my current role as an Advanced Nurse Practitioner within District Nursing services; a very unique opportunity to be part of the transformation of primary care services whilst delivering person-centred care.
