Meet our teams

Mia Elston is a Ward Nurse Manager on Tilney Ward, where we care for patients with heart problems (cardiology). Ward nurse managers supervise others on the ward, know about the care plans for every patient on the ward and make themselves available to support patients, their relatives, and staff alike.

She explained:

“A lot of my time is spent with patients, working as a nurse, as well as the day-to-day management of the ward – supporting our team of more than 40 colleagues, looking at our training needs, our development, and planning the improvements we want to make. We really support each other. People work flexibly to make sure the ward is always safe and we’re working as efficiently as we can be.

“It’s a large multi-disciplinary team, including housekeepers, healthcare assistants, nurses, doctors, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, and so on. It’s a privilege to work in such a connected way with other colleagues with different skills.

“There’s a wide range of opportunities to progress your career within QEH too. We’re now running nursing associate programmes: training colleagues who have worked their way up from healthcare assistants to be nurses. It’s brilliant to be able to actively encourage people to get a nursing qualification through ‘in-house’ learning, without necessarily having to go to university.

“It's a very supportive and accommodating place to work. We’ve got flexible working policies, which can help support people with young families – we’ve even had situations where both parents work here, and we’ve arranged the rotas to make sure it works for everyone. It’s really personal in that sense.

“Working in the NHS isn’t always easy, and of course there are some tough days as well as the good. We have a range of wellbeing services for staff, including clinical psychology, chaplaincy team and staff support line. This is as well as things like half-price gym membership, night time meals, and free parking. The leaders here are very visible and they genuinely care.

“I’ve got two dogs and there’s lots of outdoor spaces around here you can walk them. King’s Lynn is becoming a lot more diverse too, and it’s a lovely place to live – it’s a very safe place to raise children.”