Clare came into the NHS mid-career with a background in research and teaching children with autism, but fell in love with the NHS immediately. Although she does not work directly with patients she can see the difference her service makes to improving NHS services.

Why did you choose to work in the NHS?

I stumbled into the NHS, so a better question for me would be ‘Why do I choose to stay?’
The answer to that is easy; working in the NHS means that I can contribute to improving people's lives, coming to work each day is meaningful, rewarding and has purpose. I love the NHS and all it stands for and it’s an honour to work within it and support it.

Tell us about your role? 

In the Knowledge and Evidence Service we support staff to ensure that patient care is underpinned by the best available research evidence of what works and that it builds on the very best practices out there. We help staff with improvement ideas to build their case for change by providing data, insight, evidence, guidance and learning from elsewhere to ensure their plans have the best chance of success. We also capture learning from the brilliant work staff are doing and ensure that it is shared and others can learn from it.  

What do you most enjoy about your role? 

My role has a lot of autonomy, allows for creativity and advocacy and I am able to support areas that particularly matter to me such as patient care, quality improvement, equality, diversity and inclusion, staff wellbeing, patient experience and engagement.  I love that I get to listen to and learn from frontline staff about what matters to them and try to adapt what we deliver to support that. Every day is different and I have never been bored as my role allows for continuous improvement and setting our own stretching goals. I love it!

What would you say to someone thinking about a career in the NHS? 

Do it! There is so much scope for learning, progression and challenge. The NHS attracts a lot of kind and compassionate, hard-working people who are passionate about what they do and they are a pleasure to work with.