Lucy OS 09

About Lucy

When I started at St Mary’s Hall in 2002 girls were still a minority. I was presented with many opportunities to try different activities. Through music, sport, drama, CCF and various charity committees over the years, including LTC, SCHT holiday week and Lourdes, I enjoyed the sense of camaraderie. I learned the value of kindness, diligence and commitment, thriving in team surroundings and developing leadership skills and good time management.

Being educated in a co-educational, international environment I was shown that everyone has something good to give and an alternative perspective we can learn from. With such diverse backgrounds and cultures in every classroom I learned to be adaptable and open minded. This has created life-long friends for me all over the world.

Caring for young people and their families on what can be the worst day of their lives, I provide empathy whilst being an advocate and critical thinker. I am able to keep a calm level head in situations of high pressure while giving lifesaving treatment and emotional support. My job requires me to be flexible and non-judgmental. I provide the same high standard of care to a wide variety of patients; this has included refugees, teenage victims of gang knife crime, a two day old baby with meningitis, and aspiring rugby players taken down badly in a tackle.

I am a mentor for student nurses and provide support and education sessions for junior nurses. We empower young people and their families by giving health promotion advice and teaching basic life support. Working in a leading children’s hospital means I am actively involved in clinical research to ensure we are providing gold standard care.

The strength I have today as a woman in the world stems from the strong men and women who went before me, who taught me to give without counting the cost and to remain humble. I have the confidence and pliancy to live in a different country, doing a job I love where everyday I give ‘as much as I can’.

Lucy McFarlane - Working in the largest paediatric trauma centre in the Southern Hemisphere

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