Alison Arnfield
Alison Arnfield, managing director of SACHS Ltd (Solutions Across Child Health Services), reveals the ins and outs of her career as a nursing and healthcare consultant.
When I started out in my career I never dreamt for a moment that I would end up running my own business. My initial training was in children’s nursing and then later I became interested in nursing cancer patients. I’ve always loved working with children; they deteriorate very quickly but they also get better very quickly, and no matter how ill they are they always want to play!
When the opportunity to work in America arose I jumped at the chance and happily hopped on an aeroplane to Little Rock, Arkansas. I learned a fantastic amount while I was out there. At the time, English nurses had a fairly limited role whereas in America they took on extra responsibilities for things such as siting intravenous lines.
As the night sister I was in charge of the whole children’s hospital at night. It was a big undertaking since there were 150 beds and an intensive care unit that treated a wide range of conditions ranging from gunshot wounds to severe burns.
On my return to the UK I specialised in health and nutrition, followed by a return to children’s cancer services. Then, as now, the National Health Service was undergoing many changes and I was able to take advantage of new opportunities. I was promoted to clinical manager and then clinical director, but felt that I lacked support in the latter role and chose to take four months off to travel before taking a secondment to a commercial healthcare company as their director of nursing.
When I came back to the UK I was lucky to be offered a consultancy project and developed an interest in working for the NHS but being outside it. Now my work takes me all over the country working in child health often reviewing services in hospitals and the community to evaluate the skills, numbers and organisation of services for nurses and other staff. Recently I have started work in independent boarding schools too.