Dawn Wintle signs off on a magnificent 52 year career

An incredible nursing career dedicated to helping people with drug and alcohol dependencies comes to an end this autumn as Dawn Wintle retires from the trust.

Early life and nurse training

Dawn has been our substance misuse lead nurse at Yeovil Hospital since the mid-2000s, and has also worked in our general theatres recovery unit, and as a pain specialist nurse.

“I was brought up as a forces child as my father was in the armed forces, back in the days where we travelled with the men – and it was only men back then,” she says.

“I ended up having to change schools every 18 months up until I was 15, but I thought it was wonderful as I managed to see and live in so many parts of the world that I could never have otherwise imagined.

“When I was very little, a member of my family sent me over a child’s nurse uniform as a present…and from that moment on I was only ever going to be a nurse!

“My parents humoured me of course until I got to about 15, and then they sat me down to have the serious talk about what I wanted to do with my life, but as nursing was the only thing I had ever wanted to do, they fully supported me.

“We settled in my mum’s home county of Suffolk when my father came out of the forces, so that’s naturally where my nursing career began.

“Once I turned 17, I had to start looking at teaching hospitals, and I applied for Bury St Edmunds and Ipswich, and got a placement at the latter.

“Off to Ipswich I went with my mum, where I had an interview, and a few weeks later I was offered a place. I began my training in 1972 and qualified in 1975, where I worked in an acute male surgery trauma unit at the old Great Yarmouth Hospital for three years.

“I loved every minute of it and always look back at my training as being incredible, as they expected an awful lot from their students, which was brilliant from my point of view, because they gave back whatever I put in.

“One of my lifelong highlights was coming home from Ipswich after getting my results and finding that I’d passed. It was the one and only time that I saw my dad cry, and he was so proud…he died two years later so didn’t get to see my career.”

Career in Somerset

Dawn then took a gap of four years where she had two children, before moving down to Somerset with her husband’s job.

“I very quickly learned that being at home with two small children wasn’t on the cards for me at all, so I made contact with the two local community hospitals at Butleigh and Wells,” she continues.

“The team at Wells Hospital had an opportunity of two flexible night shifts a week, so I did eight and a half years there, towards the end of which I did some bank shifts at Yeovil Hospital just to get a feel of an acute hospital again.

“I had great vibes from Yeovil Hospital and felt it was somewhere I’d really like to work at, and I was also very keen to get back into acute nursing at that stage. So, I applied and was successful in getting a staff nurse post in main theatre recovery.

“About 18 months later the sister moved on and I applied for the role and got it, a job that I was in for about four years, and then the acute pain sister began a very limited service, before she retired, so I went for that post and got it…and the rest is history!”

Interest in substance misuse nursing

Dawn then built up our acute pain service, but soon realised that there was a gap in the way we looked after a specific group of patients – those with drug addictions. “Me being me, I thought this cannot happen and was not fair,” she says.

“I spoke to my manager and suggested that we put some guidelines together for treating this group of patients, so I joined forces with our senior pharmacist, Dave Donaldson, who was also looking at it from a different angle.

“We sat down and put some draft guidelines together and sent them out for consultation, including to our mental health unit colleagues.

“At the time the Somerset Drug Service was based in the grounds of the Summerlands site in Yeovil and they had a new consultant – Dr John Barnes, who has also recently retired from the trust – who somehow managed to get hold of the draft guidelines I’d written and made contact with me.

“The three of us sat down and Dr Barnes really liked the draft guidance, and asked me why I had started thinking about this area of work.

“I mentioned how I’d seen a patient with major trauma on our critical care unit, who had driven his car under the influence of heroin and had a head-on collision with a lorry…which didn’t work out so well for him.

“Dr Barnes told me that the Royal College of GPs had just opened a year long substance misuse certificate course for nurses, and that piqued my interest straightaway, so my manager put me forward and I got a place. A year later I gained the certificate from the brilliant course.”

Inspiration from Dr Jim Gotto

It was when consultant gastroenterologist Dr Gotto joined the trust that Dawn’s career seemed to snowball again in a really positive way.

“Dr Gotto and I soon met up properly and he looked at my draft guidelines, and said he was happy with them, and pleased I was taking an interest,” she continues.

“As I began to work with people addicted to drugs, I took a very upfront and honest approach to caring for them, explaining that I could only help them if they wanted me to.

“Dr Gotto then asked me to re-write the alcohol detox guidelines with him, which was the point that I also began caring for those with alcohol addiction too.

“This coincided with me needing to pass the acute pain nursing role aspect of the job onto another colleague, as our drug and alcohol service was growing all the time.”

Reflections on her career

Reflecting back on her career, Dawn says one of the proudest moments of her career was winning a strategic health authority award for advanced clinical practice.

“Winning that award was a big one for me,” she adds. “I was so proud that the service had been recognised, not really for me, but for the work that had been done to improve the outcomes for our patients.

“We do a lot more than similar teams in other areas of the country, including many larger trusts, so I’m really proud of what my team has achieved.

“I want to particularly thank Dr Gotto for giving me all the opportunities to develop my career to what it is today.”

One of the funniest things that happened during Dawn’s time at Ipswich Hospital was back when she did a stint as a third year student on an acute orthopaedic ward.

“In those days nobody called each other by their first name, and just used ‘nurse’ or ‘sister’,” she says. “One day we were caring for a group of younger men who had fractured their femurs through playing sports, and being lads, they were trying to figure out my name. They saw my initial was ‘D’, so they took it in turns to shout out random names beginning with the letter D.

“All of a sudden, they’d shout “DEIRDRE”, and of course I’d ignore it… well until I was doing a medical round with the night sister, and all of a sudden, I heard “DAWN”. I swung round wondering what I’d done wrong – oops, they got me!

“It feels scary to be retiring, because other than the four year gap when I had my kids, I’ve worked all of my adult life as a nurse, and I’ve been at Yeovil Hospital for 32 years.

What’s next?

“In terms of what’s next, I’m still trying to persuade my husband to travel, but he had a very different upbringing than me, and there are parts of the world that I’d like to go to that he’s a little unsure of – it’s a work in progress!

“I’m also going to take some time out to relax, because working full time I find that my days off are crammed full of doing all the life admin bits, especially when the kids were still at home.

“It has been hard work over the years, but would I have changed anything? Not a chance!”