Hello, my name is Julie Scott, I work as a Research Nurse for the Neuro-progressive and Dementia Network as part of the Grampian Branch working in Aberdeen.
My career has taken me through many types of caring pathways. I have been a Nanny, a care assistant in a retirement home for the blind, I worked in a day centre for Children with Physical and mental health challenges, and in a purpose built, adult supported living unit.
My first experiences of a Dementia ward was a 28 bedded male unit in a long term stay hospital as a nursing Auxiliary and it was here I wanted to understand the illness and its complexities more and I applied for Nurse Training.
I first became an Enrolled nurse and then with further training became a registered Mental Health Nurse. In amongst all of this I became a Mum and raised two boys.
Before coming into research, I worked on a dementia assessment unit in a community hospital setting where we, as a team, saw the ward change from a 30 bedded long stay unit to an assessment only unit, we lost many beds along the way. Before I left in 2018, we had moved to a new purpose built facility and had just 10 beds available for assessment of patients who were quite distressed or needing changes to their medication which meant, a short stay in hospital to facilitate this. We occasionally did respite care for patients whose carers were in desperate need of support and a break. Prior to this I worked in a large mental health teaching hospital for adult and older adult patients.
I started in research at the age of 55 when the vacancy was highlighted to me by a colleague. I found out about the job and what it entailed, who the Neuro-progressive and Dementia network were and I decided to go ahead and apply. At the time the job was advertised, NDN Aberdeen were hosting a conference at King’s Collage Aberdeen. I found out about it and secured a ticket. It was the first time I had been to a research conference and while there I met the Aberdeen team. I found the conference very interesting and it helped me think differently about the power point presentation I needed to do for the upcoming interview.
Once successfully through the interview and waiting for a start date, on my days off, I attended some training days, put on for new researchers by Grampian R&D department. I attended things like Lab Skills, Good Clinical Practise and Informed Consent among other things. I was beginning to wonder if I could process all of this information.
I had gone from individual care planning and assessing patients, doing work rotas and co-managing staff cover on a busy ward to learning how to process bloods in a lab and all about the ethics and good clinical practice. I became aware in the early stages that as with ward nursing, research nursing puts the patient at the centre of all decisions made.
Once started in my new role, I was to work on the EPAD study, European Prevention of Alzheimer Dementia.
There was a lot of training to do, apart from the everyday research skills there was trial specific rater training and procedures and as with all learning it has to be backed up with practice. The team were very supportive ensuring I got lots of opportunities to observe and then, as my confidence grew, do the assessments myself. Learning as a mature person is very different and although dedicated, I found it a challenge, along with children leaving home and going on to University. I did feel overwhelmed by all the learning and questioned my ability, hoping I had I done the right thing.
Six and a half years later I am still doing study related training, as well as co-ordinating some of the trials at site. My computer skills have improved tenfold and still more to learn in this area. We, the staff, have reduced in numbers because of cut backs and I am the only member of the original team from when I started in 2018.
We are a small and productive team, and we are very supportive of each other. During my time with the network we, as a team, have moved from predominately Dementia studies to other neuro-progressive diseases including Motor Neuron Disease, Huntington Disease, Parkinson Disease, and Multiple Sclerosis as well as introducing Research to Nursing Homes. We take opportunities as they come along, to challenge ourselves, such as taking on an infusion study which, coming from a mental health back ground is definitely a new area for me, but we feel the fear and do it anyway. Supported by the wider team.
While I miss the day to day patient contact and helping on a very personal level, not just with the patients but families as well, I do not regret the change.
I am in awe of the volunteers on our trial who find the strength and time to participate, when faced with life limiting conditions.
The support we can provide to participants that they might not get from their normal care provider, through the findings of our investigations, have helped a few participants by highlighting undetected health issues, resulting in referrals made to other specialities for further scrutiny.
I am looking forward to the new Research coming our way in the future.
Julie Scott
Author
Julie Scott [1] is a Research Nurse with over 35 years’ NHS experience, now working with the Neuroprogressive and Dementia Network in NHS Grampian. She supports commercial and non-commercial clinical trials across hospital and community settings, bringing both professional expertise and personal understanding of dementia. Outside work, she enjoys walking, gardening, cinema trips, and time with her family.