My name is Elizabeth Rimmer and I am founder of EntrepreNurse.
EntrepreNurse is a coaching service for nurses who are interested in starting out in their own businesses, or who may have already started a business but are looking for some networking opportunities and some support. Or even for nurses that are just a little bit curious about that whole world. I would like to give you some background about my younger self, so that you can understand how I have arrived at this point in my life.
I got my first job when I was really quite young, probably about fourteen I think, and it was one of these subscription magazines. So, I not only had to deliver it to people’s homes, but I had to collect the cash for it.
I was not actively conscious of it back then, but I guess that means that from an early age I was quite keen to have my own money and have some independence.
That job led on to a job at the local bakery, and I worked there on Saturdays and Sundays after school.
I remember we used to get paid at the end of the week, and the money would go into one of those little paper bags that they put the cakes and rolls in. I loved getting that little paper bag with the money written in biro on the outside and the cash on the inside.
School-wise I think I did OK certainly in my younger years.
I had a best friend who suffered with Cystic Fibrosis. As we got older she seemed to be in and out of hospital more, and I visited her at children’s hospital in Surrey a few times.
I am not sure if unwittingly, this may have influenced my decision to train as a nurse later on.
Joanna sadly passed away aged fourteen, following a period of unwellness.
At that time I think it was a fairly typical age to live to for someone who had Cystic Fibrosis.
Although I had been told that the disease had meant that she would not live very long, I do not think I really grasped that. It simply was not the norm. I did not know anyone who had passed away, let alone at a young age. I think I thought that she would just make a miraculous recovery one day like they do in the films, but that unfortunately was not to be.
I found that the teachers at school were not really that sympathetic. I actually cannot really remember a single discussion or conversation taking place, but I guess it was pre the touchy feely era, and you were really expected just to crack on.
From then on, I would say that my academic life started to take a bit of a nosedive.
I began to spend more and more time hanging out in the local coffee shops with my mates, drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes, and probably just generally making a bit of a nuisance of ourselves.
So, I came to a decision that it was time to move on. I decided that it would be better just to get a job and leave, instead of wasting my time smoking and drinking coffee.
I came up with this plan to enter into nursing, and maybe that was partly to do with the experience of losing my friend. I am really not sure, but that was what I wanted to do. I was too young at the time to start straight away, so in the interim I was going to get a job in the local nursing home.
I filled out my nursing applications, which again, looking back were horribly poor applications. In the ‘about me’ section, where you are supposed to blow your own trumpet. I think I must have written two or three lines. I really had no concept of what they were asking, and felt like I had nothing to say about myself. Which was really quite unfair with myself when I think back, because I had already had two different jobs and various different life experiences, but nobody told me how to fill out the application form, and the kind of things to expect in interview. As a result, I was rejected from the Royal Free Hospital where I really wanted to go as it was in a really cool part of London. Luckily I was accepted at Barts in central London.
I remember when I started to work at the nursing home. My mum sat me down and she said, ‘Look, this is fine. This is all well and good this plan. But let me tell you, when the time comes to go off and train to be a nurse, don’t tell me you’re not going, OK. This is the plan and you’re sticking to it. You’re not going to stay and work at this nursing home forever.’
I thought to myself, well, as if I would! What on earth is she talking about?
However the time at the nursing home was fun. It was a nice place to work, there was people of different ages there. There was a few bad eggs, but on the whole they were really nice people, caring. It was fun. The residents had fun and I had money in my pocket. I paid for myself to have driving lessons. I bought myself a little car, a light blue Fiesta, and I thought I was the bee’s knees really, rolling around the town, out most nights. They were really good days.
Now it was time to grow up and move on!
