Celebrating our nurses; 50 years in the profession | News

When Jenny Watkins started nursing the uniform included a paper hat, white tights and lace-up shoes. Not well suited to the demands of a busy, active ward nurse and a liability she says, as the hat had a short lifespan if accidentally sat on.  

That was 1976 and 50 years later, Jenny, still working as a Lead Nurse in the Safeguarding Adult Team at Royal Surrey, has just received national recognition from Kenny Gibson MBE, the National Head of Safeguarding for NHS England.   

Elaine Penfold, Head of Adult Safeguarding at Royal Surrey, said: “There aren’t many people who can say they’ve achieved 50 years in nursing and we’re so happy to be still benefitting from Jenny’s experience and wisdom. Her national recognition is so well deserved. Thank you, Jenny, for your service to the profession and Royal Surrey.”

Jenny wanted to become a nurse from the age of ten and her practical training gained at the St John’s Ambulance Brigade confirmed her ambition.

She said: “We learnt first aid skills and basic nursing. We did regional and national competitions which we won. Then I had two weeks work experience at the old Royal Surrey - one in medical records and one on Victoria ward, and that reinforced my desire to help and look after people.”

Her career, like many nurses, has been hugely varied, in Hastings, Farnham and a home for retired railway workers before arriving at the virtually new Royal Surrey in 1985.  She’s cared for patients in cardiac, stroke, oncology and elderly care before becoming a Matron for Medicine and has worked with hundreds of colleagues.  

Jenny said: “The joy of that has been the diversity of people and the different skills and personalities that they bring - that’s partly why I’m still here and haven’t wanted to retire, I’ve always felt I’m a people person, I love working in a team.”

Jenny has worked in the trust’s Safeguarding Adult Team for 12 years. She said her background of working with vulnerable patients on the wards helped the support skills she and the team now offer for patients, their relatives and staff too. And it continues to give her the patient facing interaction which she most enjoys.

“I really thrive on working with a team and physically seeing patients,” she said.  

“The ability to listen to people is at the heart of nursing for me, you can’t help someone if you don’t understand who they are and what they’re worrying about.”

In addition to her national recognition, Jenny’s extraordinary service to nursing will be celebrated in an age-old tradition called the Guildford Poyle Dicing Ceremony later this month. Started 300 years ago, Guildford’s mayor oversees the event at which the valuable work of local carers is recognised.  

We’re celebrating all the nurses working across Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust on International Nurses’ Day and thanking them for their dedication and professionalism. You can find out more about their roles in our spotlights on Sister Squirrel in ICU and Jessy and Julie working in Hospital at Home.