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International Day of Older Women

“The Resilience and Contributions of Older Women.”

Today we celebrate International Day of Older Persons, which this year has the theme “The Resilience and Contributions of Older Women.”

Our goal was to reach out to the older women who are a vital part of our trust, working or volunteering, so that they could share their stories and experience, highlight their proud moments and allow us to get a glimpse into their lives.

Marion Dickson, our Executive Director of Nursing Midwifery & Allied Health Professionals (AHPs), aged 65, shares her story...

I am a registered nurse, and health visitor, I started my nurse training in 1974 in Edinburgh at the Western General Hospital and have been a qualified nurse for 48 years.  I did my Heath Visitor training at Queen Margaret in Edinburgh in 1988.

I have three main roles within Northumbria, Executive Director of Nursing Midwifery & Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) where my role is to ensure we abide by and support professional standards, create a safe environment and culture that supports all of our nurses, midwives and AHPs, students and health care assistants is safe for both patients and staff and ensure Nurse Midwives and AHPs have a voice. I have been in this role for 4 years.

In addition, for the last 10 years I have been Executive Director of Emergency Surgery and Elective Care Business Unit which covers many areas including general surgery, orthopaedics, maternity, switchboard, contact centre, medical records, out patients, theatres and anaesthetics.

I am also the Executive Director for our Community Services Business Unit which includes not only our community nursing teams but a number of highly specialised areas who day in day out work tirelessly covering our massive geographical area.

I am passionate about my job, and the variety it offers me. Fundamentally I am a people person, very keen to find out what matters to people and what makes them tick. I work with fantastic teams and I really feel we all want to do the best job possible for our patients and our staff, and do so on a daily basis.

Born in Edinburgh, I come from a family of teachers, and ‘grafters.’ My dad was a headmaster so I never had a day off school! When I was 17 I was going to Edinburgh University to study French with the aim to become a teacher, however during the summer holidays of that year my parents were friendly with the Matron at the local hospital in Duns, who offered me a job as a healthcare assistant and I loved it - so changed my mind last minute and became a nurse instead, which I haven’t regretted for one minute. I started my nurse training in 1974 at the Western General Hospital Edinburgh.

I have had various roles across a wide range of different healthcare settings during my career all within Northumberland. I have worked part time, full time, night duty, worked within surgery, orthopaedics, midwifery, care of the elderly and stroke, community nursing and public health at all different levels clinically, and in managerial roles, and have been fortunate to be part of some amazing projects delivering high quality, safe care. I have also worked in Venezuela and more recently visited Tanzania with the Bright Charity.

Throughout my career I have progressed, and moved into senior roles, both clinical and non-clinical roles and grasped any opportunity I could to learn. I always tried to continue clinical work, it has always been really important to me that people know that I am a nurse, to offer credibility to my role. I hope I am a role model to our junior staff.

I am really fortunate in that I don’t feel any older, I still have a lot of energy and don’t tire easily. I still really enjoy learning new things and spending time with people and friends. I am a granny to two amazing grandsons who we see at weekends. I enjoy walking, gardening, interior design and catching up with friends… we have just had our reunion last week with my nursing pals!

I think I am resilient; your life experiences make you more resilient. I live in Berwick and tend to leave early in the morning to travel to work to avoid the traffic and I find the drive to and from work daily to be cathartic and helps me to process my day. Passing Holy Island and seeing the sunrise in the morning never fails to amaze.

It is really important to me personally that I do the best job I can, encompassing the trust values with honesty, continuing to reflect and learn.  I love, absolutely love, seeing all of our staff grow and develop through different roles both clinical and non-clinical ensuring everyone has access to education or training to maximise their ability. Most important to me is that the areas I look after have a voice in our organisation, that we offer that human compassion, and that ultimately people choose to work here, and they would recommend us to their families.

My job can be very hard, it can be challenging and it can be sad but it can also be fun and rewarding. I am so very lucky and privileged to be surrounded by a multidisciplinary team that make a difficult job easy.