Tom Haswell marks an incredible 50 years in nursing
Emergency Nurse Practitioner (ENP) Tom Haswell from Gloucestershire Royal Hospital's Emergency Department marks a major milestone this week of 50 years' nursing service.
Tom’s career started with an apprenticeship in engineering, but following a hospital admission, he felt that nursing would be a better option as he knew he did not want to be an engineer. Tom decided to volunteer at the weekend, loved it and spent all week at work looking forward to volunteering again the following weekend.
He then applied for a job as a Nursing Auxiliary on what was known as a male geriatric ward. Taking an entrance test to try to get into nursing as he did not have the right qualifications, Tom scored very highly and commenced his State Registered Nurse training at The Queen Alexandra Hospital, Portsmouth (his hometown) in 1974. After qualifying, Tom worked in a variety of acute hospital settings including surgery, medicine and renal nursing before finding his true calling in Accident and Emergency Nursing.
Tom's nursing career has involved working in several different areas, including Portsmouth, Essex, a year in Saudi Arabia, Kingston-upon-Thames and Gloucester. He came to Gloucester in November 1986 to work as senior Charge Nurse in what was the A&E department, which also included covering the sexually transmitted diseases clinic in those days. While in Gloucestershire, Tom met his wife (who is also a nurse) at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital (GRH) in 1990 and has remained working mainly at GRH since then.
Tom is most proud of the fact he has remained working in a clinical role throughout his career, sharing his knowledge and experience with others. He has always been interested in Quality Improvement and was a lead quality facilitator for the hospital when quality improvement was first introduced by Janet Duberly, the then Director of Nursing. He led on the development of the first neck of femur care pathway and was also actively involved with the introduction of cardiac thrombolysis within GRH's A&E department.
Tom is very much known for his storytelling, bringing humour to work and sharing his wealth of experience with more junior doctors and nurses.
Huge congratulations and thank you for your incredible 50 years of service Tom!
Tom is professional, compassionate, calm and simply likes to make a difference to the patients that he sees.