UK Skills / Case Studies

Individual Award

Mary White

When Mary White first started nursing, some 30 years ago, she soon saw a need to train nurses working in general practice, increasing their expertise and capabilities.

Today she runs her own training company, working with nurses across the UK and internationally. Over the course of her career, she has specialised in training nurses to work with asthma patients and to carry out cervical smear tests – and has worked as far afield as China and Uzbekistan.

Ms White first became interested in training when she became a practice nurse in the 1970s. She says: “Practice nursing was unrecognised, task orientated, and derided with no training opportunities. I wanted expertise and teaching qualifications, national recognition for practice nurses and qualified trainers.”

Her employers paid for a week’s combined course in GP and practice nurse training and, using her own resources, she also took English National Board for Nursing and Midwifery (ENB) six-month courses in teaching, hypertension and family planning. She set up the first network of practice nurse trainers for Devon and co-founded the National Practice Nurse Trainers Group - www.pdinet.co.uk.

In response to the fact that 2,000 asthmatics die every year, Ms White took a six-month asthma diploma and a one-week trainer’s course to become a national trainer, running one of only two nurse-run clinics in southern England. When other nurses asked to observe her clinics, she developed her own courses, and trained hundreds of nurses and doctors across the country. Ms White went on to work for a health authority where she was responsible for making sure GP practices delivered good asthma care and staff who were educated in asthma. She developed an ENB nurses’ national qualification in asthma for Plymouth University.

Dr Graham Richardson, respiratory and general medicine consultant at Torbay Hospital, says he first met Ms White when she observed his hospital chest clinic as part of an initiative to start a nurse-run asthma clinic. “Her work in the practice resulted in a 50% drop in appointments made for patients requiring acute asthma management. Her contribution to asthma care by nurses is significant and she has published in nursing journals. She sowed the seed for a nurse liaison role within most hospitals.”

At the age of 55 she part-funded herself to take an MSc in healthcare at Exeter University, with additional support from a Florence Nightingale scholarship. She went on to approach a drugs company who granted £40,000 in funding to support a two-year post at Exeter University to develop respiratory courses, including a degree-level course in breathlessness. While working full-time she also took a Postgraduate Teaching Certificate to allow her to teach in higher education.

Finally, she set up training agency PDI to teach nurses in the UK and internationally, and spent £10,000 on coaching to learn business skills. In Bosnia, she trained 250 nurses and 24 trainers, launching the country’s first practice nurse newsletter and learning Serbo-Croat. She has also trained trainers in Slovakia, Egypt, Thailand and Uzbekistan and in 2006-7 represented the Royal College of GPs in China.

Today her agency continues, commissioned by Primary Care Trusts (PCT) for the NHS, to train nurses in Devon and Cornwall to carry out smear tests for cervical cancer, through a team of 25 trainers. In 2009 she launched online training in order to save the NHS money.

Dr Alison Mackenzie, Cancer Screening Commissioner for the Plymouth PCT, says: “Mary has consistently delivered high quality training which is well evaluated by clinical colleagues. She has also contributed to the development of local strategies and policies.”

ENDS

Entry name: Mary White; From novice practice nurse in the 80s to international trainer in 20 challenging years.
website: www.pdinet.co.uk
Entry no: 90431
Location: 29 Sentrys Orchard, Exminster, Exeter EX6 8UE.
Region: South West.

For further information contact: 
Antonia Lee 020 7429 2825 / Kate Moloughney 020 7429 2827 
antonia.lee@ukskills.org.uk
kate.moloughney@ukskills.org.uk