Celebrating our nurses; the day of the squirrel | News

Squirrels are depicted as industrious, adaptable creatures with a survivor’s instinct and Sister Elaine Creighton, known to patients and colleagues as ‘Sister Squirrel’, certainly shares some of those characteristics. She has nursed in Royal Surrey’s Intensive Care Unit for 32 years, caring for thousands of patients and evolving with the significant developments in healthcare over three decades. But why Squirrel?

She said: “When we arrived as new nurses on the unit in May 1994, we were given an animal name, either because of a physical resemblance or a behaviour trait. I used to have really long hair and I also really like nuts - so Squirrel it was.”

Sister Squirrel did her training at Royal Surrey and was drawn to working in Intensive Care by the very particular requirements and expectations of the nursing environment.

She said: “It was so interesting. I liked the intensity and that I had to keep focused. You learn so much. Initially, your brain is super saturated and you’re constantly being bombarded with information which can be quite intimidating and daunting.”

Sister Squirrel says for the first few months it didn’t come as easily as she’d assumed.  But as for many nurses, there was one experience, one patient, which made all the difference.

She said: “I had a ventilated quite sick patient who I was caring for.  It required so many of the new skills I needed and for me, it felt like when I was learning the piano; for a long time, I could only play with one hand, then one day I managed to get the second one in and it just made sense, this was the same. I knew what I had to do with the patient and I felt confident I could do all of it.”

And she’s been here ever since, gradually working her way from entry level Band 5 to a senior sister. The ICU has changed significantly in that time. In 1994 it had nine beds, five for intensive care patients and four for coronary patients. In 2026, the unit has 24 beds caring for some of the most critically ill patients at Royal Surrey.  Sister Squirrel said:

“I look back now and some of the kit was so basic.  There have been real positives when it comes to the evolution of equipment and tools for patient monitoring. It is interesting, but no matter how exciting the kit and equipment is you’re still dealing with a person. Our patients are so vulnerable in here, the most important part of what we do is maintaining really high standards of care.”

She now helps lead a 97-strong nursing team in ICU, supporting their education and mentoring newcomers, responsibilities which she says give her a very specific insight. And in 2013, she gained another important and life-changing perspective when she received her first cancer diagnoses. 

“I chose to work all through my treatment and off the back of chemo, radiotherapy and surgery, my understanding of how hard that all is, how overwhelming it is, has given me a unique perspective,” she said.

“I can say I know that fear, that treatment is really harsh and some of the worries that come with a cancer diagnosis. I can now use it in a positive way to empathise with my patients in a similar position.” 

And there were other lessons she drew from being a patient, which she now reiterates to her ICU team.

Sister Squirrel said: “Talk to your patients, have a conversation. I always say here, even if you have a ventilated patient, talk to them. Treat everyone with respect and dignity, just because they’re on a ventilator doesn’t mean they can’t hear you.”

Good communication with patients, families and colleagues is a common skill required of nurses regardless of where they work, but Sister Squirrel believes there is a uniqueness to intensive care nursing. She says there’s a mutual respect between ICU and ward staff.

“It’s very different to the stresses and strains of the wards,” she said. 

“Because it’s intensive care we have some of the sickest patients and with that comes its own demands on you as a nurse and a sister managing the team.  We’re constantly pushing our critical thinking and the team’s knowledge and experience to find ways of improving recovery.”

After 32 years in intensive care, Sister Squirrel has so much experience and guidance to share with the generations following in her footsteps. She is passionate about the work they do and bringing out the very best in her team for the benefit of patients.

She said: “We need focused, motivated team players with great communication skills, good organisation and time management. But above all else? High quality care and compassion. Patients have incredibly interesting lives and the stories they and their families can tell are always worth hearing. Give them a chance and have a chat.”

On this year’s International Nurses' Day, Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust is celebrating the well over 1,500 nurses who work so hard with such dedication and care in multiple roles.  Read more inspiring stories about Jenny’s 50 years of nursing and Jessy and Julie’s work with Hospital at Home.