ANNP celebrates 40 years of nursing

Anne Moylan has received a 40 years service award to mark four decades in nursing and, as she steps down from her advanced neonatal nurse practitioner post at Forth Valley Royal Hospital in Stirlingshire, Scotland, she looks back at the advances in neonatology since she started training at 17 years old.

Anne began nursing after an interview at the old Law Hospital in Lanarkshire. After completing her basic nurse training, she moved to Forth Valley to do midwifery training and then began work at the neonatal unit with sick and preterm babies.

Anne says: "When I started working in neonatology, there was only one textbook on the subject - we have come a long way since then."

Anne plans to share the knowledge and experience that she has amassed during her career in her new full-time role as a lecturer at Edinburgh Napier University. She adds: "I will still be around at Forth Valley because I have an honorary contract so I can continue with research and teaching. I am also taking up the post of consultant nurse in Aberdeen."

Anne is not only helping to shape the future of neonatal nursing in Scotland, she has also been sharing her skills with nurses in Vietnam, an opportunity that arose through her work at the university. She says: "I went to a place caled Da Nang, where I delivered neonatal education to nurses. I taught them how to resuscitate a very premature newborn baby or a baby who has collapsed on the ward. Vietnam is a developing country so there are very different conditions. But with educational input they have managed to reduce neonatal mortality by 50 per cent in the last couple of years."

Anne is planning to return to Vietnam on the volunteer programme and she hopes to inspire doctors and nurses both here and further afield with the skills she has amassed. She insists: "I am proud to fly the flag for neonatology. Neonatology is not about one person - it is all about how a team works together."