Nurses career pathways can be very varied. Sometimes we apply for a job because it leads towards a particular career aspiration or goal. Alternatively, we can accidentally find ourselves in a speciality that we find interesting and that we excel at.  Whichever way you find your passion or career pathway, the BSG Nurses are always looking for ways to support our members. 

This three-part series is aimed at nurses who are new and/or those considering the field of Gastroenterology. We have a wealth of experienced nurses who have carved out their careers within this field and are willing to share their learned experience. 

Those of us working within Gastroenterology nursing know what a diverse, interesting and progressive field it can be. Whether you want to work on wards, out-patients, or the community within one of the many gastroenterology specialities, this series aims to provide practical suggestions to give you the skills and confidence to successfully apply for your dream job.

PART 1

Find your passion

What interests you? It sounds obvious, but which parts of your job do you enjoy, are there particular conditions and patients that you enjoy caring for? What environment do you like – is the hospital ward environment where you feel comfortable and really enjoy getting to know your patients or do you like the rapid turnover of endoscopy or out-patients? Are you wanting to move towards a specialist or advanced practice role? Look at the job descriptions and person specifications of jobs in Gastroenterology nursing – this will help to guide you to the skills and experience that are required and help focus your ongoing professional development.

Talk to nurses doing the job you want – find a buddy

If there is a role that really interests you, go and talk to the people who are doing it already. Don’t be shy - make your intentions known. Ask if they are likely to be expanding the team or have vacancies coming up.  Find out what they did to progress and what they would advise you to do. They may also receive information regarding relevant study days or conferences and can keep you informed. They could have access to funding or know of grants / bursaries that you can apply to for funding. 

If there is no one in your Trust doing the job you are interested in, is there someone in a neighbouring Trust, or even elsewhere in the country? It is easy to have contact remotely either by email or Teams. Most nurses would be delighted to share their expertise and experiences to budding, interested colleagues.

Use your appraisals to help you progress

Be open about what you want to achieve and where you see your career going. A good manager will want to support you to develop, even if that ultimately means you may leave their department. Go to your appraisal prepared with learning objectives that will help you make small steps towards your dream job. If they become part of your appraisal objectives your manager has an obligation to help you achieve them over the subsequent year.

Be proactive in your current role

Be interested and motivated in your current place of work. When volunteers are requested for additional roles, step forward. For example, does your department need a representative for Infection Control, Safety, Green endoscopy, or something else? Not only will you gain knowledge, but it will also build your skills – how to share key information with colleagues, being an effective patient or colleague advocate, negotiation and even time management. 

Have you identified an issue that needs to be addressed within your own department? Perhaps you and a couple of colleagues could work on it with your managers support? It could be something very simple, but this helps to build your experience of change management, leadership, talking to stakeholders (other team members) and demonstrates initiative. All of these skills are vital to your professional development and provide examples to include in application forms and interviews. Even if the change or project is not successful, you will have learned something from the process. 

Specialist gastroenterology roles all work within Standard Operating Procedures (SOP’s) or policies and writing these for the first time can be very daunting. Use your time in your current role wisely – ask to be involved in writing policies and SOPS. To begin with, perhaps you could offer to read through existing SOPS that require updating and see if you can identify where practice has changed, and they no longer reflect what is happening ‘on the shop floor’. Admittedly it is not the most exciting task, but the experience will serve you well in your future career. 

Get involved in audit and research

It can be difficult for nurses to be actively involved in undertaking research as it is often not part of their job description in more junior roles and there is rarely protected time made available, even in more specialist positions (Munnelly et al, 2023). However, it is important be open to the value of audit and research and get involved where you can. Not only can it help your career prospects, but there is also evidence that participating in research and quality improvement projects increases nurse job satisfaction (Olsen et al, 2023).  Involvement may be as simple as helping to collate the endoscopy comfort scores in your department or supervising the hand wash audit. If there are patients in your area that are being recruited for trials or research, be interested, ask questions, ask the patients about their experience of being involved. Talk to the research nurses about the purpose of the studies they are recruiting patients for in your area. None of this needs to take a lot of time, but it opens your mind to the research around you and this will be vital when going for more senior or advanced practice roles. 

As part of your appraisal learning objectives, you may want to consider undertaking the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Good Clinical Practice certificate or other free online courses available via their website (NIHR, 2023).

Is there a journal club with your library or could you start an informal one within your own department? Select an ‘article of the month’ – a recent piece of research relevant to your own practice area that you and colleagues can aim to read and then discuss. Knowing that others are reading it too will help to motivate you to think about how it could influence your own patient care or department. 

These activities are important aspects of improving your own professional nursing practice but also give you something to discuss in interviews when asked what may be a difficult question – what involvement have you had in audit or research?

Be visible

Get to know more senior members of the multi-disciplinary team where you work, both nursing, allied health professionals, medical and administrative. Make yourself known to them – ask questions, be interested and enquiring about in how all the different roles fit into managing patient care and the running of the department.

Trust management often ask to talk to people on the ‘shop floor’ – use the opportunity to let them know about any issues and any suggestions you may have about changes that could benefit patients. Be honest about what you want to achieve and where you would like to see your career going. As so few junior nurses do this, you will stand out and be remembered. You can also learn about how the management structure works and start to see ‘the bigger picture’. 

Can you ask to attend some department meetings?   For example, most hospitals will have a few monthly or quarterly meetings - Gastro Safety, Clinical Governance, Endoscopy User Group, Operational meetings. These will help to expand your understanding of the wider issues that impact your patients and your department.  All disciplines also have weekly multi-disciplinary meetings – Colorectal, Upper GI, Nutrition and Inflammatory bowel disease.  Attending these may help you to understand the patient’s pathway and how your department fits into your patient’s overall care. Find out from managers, consultants or the relevant specialist nurses when these meetings occur and negotiate with your manager to have a couple of hours to attend. Remember to share what you have learned with your colleagues to spread the knowledge.

Be prepared to undertake reading/learning outside of work time

By this we do not necessarily mean attending study days / conferences – the British Society of Gastroenterology Nurses (BSGN) strongly believe that you should have access to paid study leave if it is relevant to your current role. You may have to give up your own time if it is not directly relevant but try to negotiate. 

However, background reading of journal articles, practice updates etc are all part of the responsibility of being a professional and are likely to be done in your own time. Try to get into a habit of having some ‘quiet time’, maybe just half an hour a week with a cuppa when you sit and read something relevant to your practice. It might be a BSG clinical guideline, a practice related article or a nursing journal. You will have access to online journals through your work library so learn how to access these and use it.

But what about all that time spent scrolling on your phone? Use it wisely - many relevant organisations and clinicians are active on social media (Facebook, X/Twitter, Instagram). You can follow British Society of Gastroenterology (BSG), Joint Advisory Group for Endoscopy (JAG), Royal College of Nursing (RCN), Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), Guts UK, Colitis and Crohns UK, GUT journal, Frontline Gastro journal, National Nurse Endoscopists Group (NNEG), Endoscopy Brothers and Sisters to name a few. If you read an interesting article, follow the author on social media. Often, they will share useful and relevant information and publications with an open access link. It’s a good way of keeping up to date, finding out about jobs, opportunities, courses and conferences. 

Write down and reflect

As nurses we should be constantly reflecting on our practice, but how often do we get around to doing this (unless we are preparing for revalidation!). Get into the habit of making little notes about projects you are involved in or incidents that occur (ensuring no confidentiality is breached). Think about what you learned, what you would do differently, how you felt. All of this will be useful when applying for jobs and in interviews. This could be in a diary/journal or even just a notes page on your phone – somewhere that it is quick and easy to jot things down when you think about them. 

No vacancies

If the job you want is not coming up, don’t be disheartened – it is important not to underestimate the value of ‘doing time’ where you are, building your knowledge, experience and emotional intelligence (Cadman,2001). Understandably nurses are keen to progress (not least for the pay improvements) but many advanced practice roles are very demanding and will involve studying at Masters level and beyond. Having a broad base of nursing experience in gastroenterology will be invaluable as it will help to build your confidence and resilience. Specialist / advanced practice roles are often pushing the boundaries of nursing practice to improve patient care. By using some of the hints and tips suggested you will be building on your key nursing skills, gaining knowledge of treatment pathways, thinking critically and ‘seeing the bigger picture’. This will help ensure you can meet the person specifications of the job you want to progress your career in Gastroenterology nursing. 

Author Biography

Paula Brayford RN, BSc Nursing and Human Sciences, MSc Advanced Clinical Practice.

Paula Brayford is an Advanced Nurse Practitioner in Gastroenterology and has been a clinical endoscopist for over 20 years at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals NHS Trust. Along with upper and lower endoscopy (including TNE and PEG insertions) her role involves Capsule sponge, service development, endoscopy training and she is a non-medical prescriber.  Paula is a member of the West Midlands Training Academy faculty for JAG accredited OGD and Colonoscopy basic skills courses. She has a particular interest in Barrett's surveillance, safety and enhancing the patient experience. Previously she worked as a Colorectal and Stoma Care Nurse Specialist. Paula joined the BSG Oesophageal section and the BSG Nurses in June 2022.