Why I Chose Occupational Health: A Nurse’s Perspective

Dr Lara Shemtob caught up with Jessica Bore, a new member of the Insight Workplace Health nursing team to find out more about how she is finding working in the speciality 

LS: Hi Jessica! How long have you been working in Occupational Health and what were you doing beforehand?  

JB: I am fairly new to Occupational Health! I started working with Insight Workplace Health as a screening nurse six months ago and I have recently been promoted to Occupational Health Nurse. Before that I was working in hospital settings, mainly in busy specialised settings in tertiary centres… 

I graduated with a degree in Adult Nursing in 2020 from Kings College London University and began working during the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. I was based at Kings College Hospital in London having trained there and spent the first wave of the pandemic working in the Emergency Department there. Kings is a Level 1 trauma centre, so it was a really unique hands-on experience during a time where the world was having to quickly adapt to unprecedented circumstances. As a nurse I feel privileged to have gained such invaluable skills during this period, the stories I can tell during this time are enough to write a book! 

I then moved into a Haematology role. I was working in the Haematology Day Unit, supporting patients with specialised treatments for haematological emergencies. I really loved the department, my colleagues and the work. But the working conditions were very challenging - issues that will be familiar to many nurses…including very late handovers due to bed pressures where critically unwell patients needed to be transferred to the Haematology wards or ITU. 

I then moved to North Wales for reasons outside of work, which is when I found the role at Insight Workplace Health. 

LS: How do you find working in occupational health six months in? 

JB: So far, I feel like it is one of the best career decisions I have made! Insight Workplace Health have been really good about providing on the job training and I am still carrying out hands on clinical skills. For the first month of the role I spent most of my time shadowing senior colleagues, learning the ins and outs of occupational health nursing. This meant I felt like I had a really good grounding in the speciality before working independently with clients.  

The work is different to my hospital career in many ways. Firstly, there is a different cadence to the work. It is less fast paced than working in a tertiary hospital setting, but requires deeper and more independent thinking. It is less algorithmic and more autonomous… think less NEWS scores and more grey areas. It is less about moment to moment decision making - which I was very used to in my hospital roles to manage emergency presentations, and instead more focussed on prevention and improving health outcomes.

This shift in work challenges me in different ways. I am drawing on my general nursing knowledge and degree a lot more than I did when working in other specialities, where I built a strong repository of highly specialised knowledge to use day to day. That said, the varied nature of occupational health presentations mean you can come across people with all sorts of different health conditions… such as eponymous rheumatological conditions that you would rarely see unless you were a rheumatology nurse! Another opportunity to build my knowledge and improve my nursing practice. 

LS: Do you find decision making more independent compared to the other settings you have worked in?  

JB: Definitely. In hospital nursing you are always surrounded by senior nurses and the medical team. The occupational health work I do is more similar to managing an independent caseload. Ultimately this means data gathering, analysing and making decisions on presentations myself. The team at Insight Workplace Health is really accessible, and I also make decisions about when to escalate cases or speak to a senior occupational health advisor for some input.  

This was a change in how I usually worked and took some time to get used to, but I really like it now. I really value being able to see a process through with my own decisions, and I feel like I am building valuable skills as an independent practitioner as a result.  

LS: Where do you see your career going in the next few years?  

JB: I can see from the team around me that there are lots of routes to progression in occupational health nursing, which is exciting at this point in my career. Within 6 months I’ve gone from Screening Nurse to Occupational Health Nurse, I also recently completed my display screen equipment assessor training, which has given me an entire new skillset to bring to the workplaces I visit. I would definitely be interested in pursuing the Diploma in Occupational Health Practice to consolidate what I am learning on the job and be able to offer more to the speciality. Insight Workplace Health is so supportive when it comes to CPD, so that also helps when thinking about next steps 

LS: What do you do outside of work?  

JB: One of the best things about moving into occupational health is that my work-life balance has been so much better! I don’t work out of hours and I finish on time. For the first time in my career I have time and energy to do things outside of work! And I have really enjoyed building up some interests.  

I’m fortunate to live on the doorstep of Snowdon National Park. So on my days off you will find me climbing up peaks! I love the wildlife you come across when hiking in the National Park - I frequently come across wild horses and mountain goats! Very far from my life a few years ago at Kings College Hospital right in the centre of London. I am also taking up horse riding again which I had to put to the side for many years, but now due to better work-life balance I can enjoy doing what I love again. 

I am also interested in history, I do history courses, visit museums and have become a castle guide volunteer. Another nice thing about Wales is that we are surrounded by castles! In fact, I am enjoying living and working here so much that my other new hobby is learning Welsh!  

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