A NURSE dedicated to helping people with drug and alcohol dependencies has come to an end as she retired from her role at Yeovil Hospital.

Dawn Wintle has been the substance misuse lead nurse at Yeovil Hospital since the mid-2000s, and her career lasted 52 years.

She also worked in the hospital’s general theatres recovery unit, and as a pain specialist nurse.

She said: “I was brought up as a forces child as my father was in the armed forces, back in the days where we travelled with the men – and it was only men back then.

“I ended up having to change schools every 18 months up until I was 15, but I thought it was wonderful as I managed to see and live in so many parts of the world that I could never have otherwise imagined.

“When I was very little, a member of my family sent me over a child’s nurse uniform as a present…and from that moment on I was only ever going to be a nurse.

“My parents humoured me of course until I got to about 15, and then they sat me down to have the serious talk about what I wanted to do with my life, but as nursing was the only thing I had ever wanted to do, they fully supported me.

“We settled in my mum’s home county of Suffolk when my father came out of the forces, so that’s naturally where my nursing career began.

“Once I turned 17, I had to start looking at teaching hospitals, and I applied for Bury St Edmunds and Ipswich, and got a placement at the latter.

“Off to Ipswich I went with my mum, where I had an interview, and a few weeks later I was offered a place. I began my training in 1972 and qualified in 1975, where I worked in an acute male surgery trauma unit at the old Great Yarmouth Hospital for three years.

“I loved every minute of it and always look back at my training as being incredible, as they expected an awful lot from their students, which was brilliant from my point of view, because they gave back whatever I put in.

“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.”

Dawn then took a gap of four years where she had two children, before moving down to Somerset with her husband’s job.

“I very quickly learned that being at home with two small children wasn’t on the cards for me at all, so I made contact with the two local community hospitals at Butleigh and Wells,” she continued.

“The team at Wells Hospital had an opportunity of two flexible night shifts a week, so I did eight and a half years there, towards the end of which I did some bank shifts at Yeovil Hospital just to get a feel of an acute hospital again.

“I had great vibes from Yeovil Hospital and felt it was somewhere I’d really like to work at, and I was also very keen to get back into acute nursing at that stage.

"So, I applied and was successful in getting a staff nurse post in main theatre recovery.

“About 18 months later the sister moved on and I applied for the role and got it, a job that I was in for about four years, and then the acute pain sister began a very limited service, before she retired, so I went for that post and got it…and the rest is history.”

Dawn then built up Yeovil Hospital’s acute pain service, but soon realised that there was a gap in the way a specific group of patients were looked after – those with drug addictions.

“Me being me, I thought this cannot happen and was not fair,” she said.

“At the time the Somerset Drug Service was based in the grounds of the Summerlands site in Yeovil and they had a new consultant – Dr John Barnes, who has also recently retired from the trust – who somehow managed to get hold of the draft guidelines I’d written and made contact with me.

Reflecting back on her career, Dawn says one of the proudest moments of her career was winning an NHS strategic health authority award for advanced clinical practice.

“Winning that award was a big one for me,” she added.

“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.

“We do a lot more than similar teams in other areas of the country, including many larger trusts, so I’m really proud of what my team has achieved.

“I want to particularly thank Dr Gotto for giving me all the opportunities to develop my career to what it is today.”