Careers
NURSING MANAGEMENTApril 2009 | Volume 16 | Number 136
Part of a community
Gill Bennett is the only ambulance trust nursing director
in England and is on a mission to persuade nurses that they
can transfer their skills and knowledge across the traditional roles
of the healthcare professions. Here, she tells Anita Pati how
she intends to ensure that the expertise of nurses, particularly
in the safeguarding of patients, is brought to the fore
Modest though she is, gill Bennett can
pride herself on being the only nursing
director working at an ambulance trust
in england.
Now director of nursing and primary
care at West Midlands Ambulance service
Nhs trust, Ms Bennett has worked in the
nursing profession for almost 30 years.
she moved to the West Midlands in
May last year from essex Ambulance
service Nhs trust, now part of east of
england Ambulance service Nhs trust,
where she had been director of primary
care and nursing.
Ms Bennett has constantly sought
to raise the profile of nursing across
ambulance services nationwide.
For her, the transferrability and
flexibility of nurses' roles are paramount,
and the fact that nurses are often boxed
into roles is one of her chief frustrations.
`We sometimes become our own worst
enemies by pigeonholing ourselves into
nursing roles and not recognising our own
potential,' she says. `Lots of nurses still
see themselves in traditional roles and are
frustrated by it.'
she says that organisations can function
properly only when they nurture role
flexibility among their staff, `because there
are too many overlapping areas and gaps'.
Ms Bennett cites her own career path,
which has included time spent working as
an occupational nurse in a manufacturing
firm, as an example of how to develop
new capabilites.
`My career path hasn't been staff nurse,
sister, specialist nurse,' she says. `I'm not a
traditional nurse.
`I take risks, but I measure them and
record my decisions, and I have some basic
governance training with which to frame
my work.'
under Ms Bennett's influence, there
is a variety of nursing roles at West
Midlands Ambulance service Nhs trust.
Nurses receive extra training to go out
with paramedics in ambulances, for
example, and can manage gP referrals at
a singlepointofaccess centre. they also
take gP outofhours calls.
At weekends, nurses can attend a field
hospital in Birmingham city centre to treat
patients, many of whom have sustained
drinkrelated injuries.
to ensure nurses' contributions to her
new employer are valued, Ms Bennett says
she has tried to include nursing in the
training programmes for ambulance staff.
she also tries to ensure that nursing
is featured in the trust's workforce plans
and fiveyear business strategies, and that
the profession is taken into account when
the trust bids for services.
In this way, she says, nursing capacity
is no longer based simply on the number
of staff members, such as paramedics
and emergency care technicians,
who are available.
Ms Bennett also strives to promote
the value of nursing by `making sure the
expertise of nurses in safeguarding patients
and infection control, as well as record
keeping and medicines management,
are brought to the fore'.
`It's a challenge,' she says. `Ambulance
trusts are deliverers and their work is still
driven by the eightminute target.'
this focus on the performance standard
can hinder other forms of development,
she says, and is something she wants
to change.
Ms Bennett describes her leadership
style as that of a `deliverer' too, however,
and she keeps her hand in by working
alongside nurses and paramedics when
they undertake home visits or work in the
primary care centre.
thinking of the future, Ms Bennett
says that she would like eventually to
be able to help commission and provide
care overseas, for example in Africa or
south east Asia.
there are pictures of these areas on her
office wall, beside two drawings of ducks.
`I like ducks,' she says. `they do things as
individuals but they look after each other
as part of a community.'
Anita Pati is a freelance journalist
`We are sometimes our own worst enemies.
Lots of nurses still see themselves in traditional
roles and are frustrated by it'
NeilO'Connor

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