Page 58 - QARANC Spring 2024

58 The Gazette QARANC Association
Q&A with a QA
SSgt Linda Fiddy
1What is your current role, and how
long have you been in post?
I am currently the OIC of the HCA school. I have been in post since September 2020, so over three years.
2What are some of the challenges you’ve faced as an HCA manager?
Being in a phase 2 instructor comes with many challenges. You almost become a second parent to the students you train. I have also faced many other challenges, including educating others on the importance of the HCA role and what they can offer the wider army, finding appropriate clinical placements and organising contracts. We are currently rewriting the course material to ensure we provide current training for the HCA’s after they graduate to their first assignments.
3Which aspects of your role do
you find most rewarding?
I get great pleasure from seeing my students passing their exams and the proud look on their faces (and parents’ faces) when they graduate. Being part of the Defence Medical Academy has probably been my favourite assignment as I really enjoy teaching.
4Has the role of an HCA changed
over time, in which ways?
The HCA role is forever expanding, and I do feel that they are now being recognised for the experience and knowledge they can provide. As a registered nurse I will always rely heavily on my HCA’s as they are the backbone of the ward and the patient’s pathway.
5What made you get into
nursing and the army?
I have always wanted to be a nurse as I love having the ability to care and treat individuals. Aged 16, I was pondering life choices as I found college and my home very restricting and if I am going to be honest, boring. I wanted excitement and a challenge. My sister had attempted selection, and I thought I should try too.
6If you could do any other
job what would it be?
I would love to be part of the CCast team but unfortunately the privilege is RAF only. I am very interested in Burns and would love to become a burns specialist. However now with UCM, you never know the possibilities.
7What are your off-duty
hobbies and interests?
Cross-fit, Boxing, tug of war and spending time with my family.
Linda Fiddy was speaking to Steve Bax.
‘What is an Army nurse? My 21st Century response’
Dear Gazette,
In his letter to the Autumn Gazette, Col Eric Gruber von Arni poses
the question “What makes an Army nurse”.
The history of nursing will always bring a variation of views.
Nightingale is always there but some would argue that she was in fact a very well connected and therefore influential exponent of public health supported by the data and understanding of the day. Equally, the Knights Hospitaller and many monastic orders were clear givers of care within the context of the day.
Nor is this activity solely attributed to Christian ideals, for Buddhist centres also offered care as a component of their beliefs as is the case more widely. It could easily be argued that they were all in fact nursing forerunners.
What then of the Army of today? Nursing is the patient safety, patient critical, ever-present profession in almost every care environment. On a continuum from home base to peace keeping, peace enforcement, humanitarian interaction and of course war fighting, it is here where the force multiplying confidence in soldiers getting the trauma interactions required in a timely fashion nursing offers highly complex, technical and focussed environmental, public and occupational health expertise.
This complex interaction of EH, PH and OH is key to our understanding of what our profession offers widely but also more specifically within the Army context.
The term “basic nursing care” is often used to describe some of what nurses do. However, there is nothing basic about what we do. There are fundamentals but they require advanced thinking, analytical and tactile skills. Over and above this, is the requirement for complex problem solving often at pace and with multiple factors known and unknown to consider.
Nursing has a fundamental construct around caring, sometimes referred to as the “art” of nursing. This coupled with a detailed understanding of the sciences that inform the fundamentals of nursing form an extraordinary coupling of art and science that defines nursing and indeed Army nursing to a significant degree. These attributes are never more relevant than in the challenging environments that Army nurses find themselves in.
Much is made of the importance of “soft skills” such as empathy, conflict resolution, sense of humour, positive attitude, taking responsibility and so many more. While they are clearly key skills in an environment requiring complex human interactions they are (in my humble opinion) very far from soft. Given the Army nursing operational environment they are clearly much higher order skills required by professionals in order to operate effectively at the personal and team level.
An Army nurse is an exponent of a complex set of higher order skills across the art and science of the nursing spectrum. An Army nurse is agile, versatile and highly competent both as an independent practitioner and as part a multi-disciplinary and sometimes multi- national, multi-lingual team. These activities take place in a range of technically enabled and technically challenged environments where a flexible approach often makes the difference in outcomes.
In response to the question posed there is no clear one-line definition that encapsulates the complexity of what Army nurses are and do. It is clear that a very detailed volume would not do justice to the question of what makes an Army nurse. Thoughts and reflections are my own informed by 45 years of nursing thus far, 40 of which as an Army nurse (regular and reserve). I accept that many of you will be more articulate than I, but I did feel a need to put some thoughts on paper.
Colonel Kevin Davies MBE, RRC, CStJ, DL, PhD, MA, RN Colonel Commandant QARANC