Dawn Wintle is retiring from her position as lead substance misuse nurse at Yeovil Hospital
Carys Nally
BBC News, West of England
A hospital nurse has signed off for the final time following a “magnificent” 52-year career.
Dawn Wintle, 70, has been the substance misuse lead nurse at Yeovil Hospital, in Somerset, since the mid-2000s.
She began her career at Ipswich hospital, where she secured a placement at 17 years old.
Ms Wintle said: “It has been hard work over the years, but would I have changed anything? Not a chance.”
The nurse, who was brought up as a “forces child”, first wanted to go into the profession when she received a present as a girl of a children’s nurse uniform.
She said: “From that moment on I was only ever going to be a nurse.”
Settling in Suffolk when her father came out of the armed forces, Ms Wintle’s nursing career began at Ipswich Hospital in 1972, where she qualified three years later.
She said: “One of my lifelong highlights was coming home from Ipswich after getting my results and finding that I’d passed.
“It was the one and only time that I saw my dad cry, and he was so proud. He died two years later so didn’t get to see my career.”
Ms Wintle then took a gap of four years when she had two children, before moving down to Somerset with her husband’s job.
Image source, NHS Somerset
After qualifying as a nurse Ms Wintle said this was the one and only time she saw her father cry
After realising staying at home with two small children “wasn’t on the cards”, she started working at Wells Hospital.
More than nine years later, she got a job as a staff nurse in Yeovil Hospital where she began building-up the acute pain service, later focusing on patients with drug and alcohol addictions.
Reflecting on her career, Ms Wintle said one of the proudest moments was winning an NHS strategic health authority award for advanced clinical practice.
“Winning that award was a big one for me,” she said.
“I was so proud that the service had been recognised, not really for me, but for the work that had been done to improve the outcomes for our patients.”
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