Story Series: Farida Pirani
2020 is the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife, a time to reflect on the skills, commitment and expert clinical care that nurses and midwives bring, and the impact they make on the lives of so many. Here Farida Pirani, Deputy Head of Nursing in our Lewisham Directorate talks about her nursing career.
"I kind of fell into nursing when I was 17 years old. I was born and brought up in Karachi, Pakistan. I belong to a lower middle-class family. Being educated in a basic government school system, I did not have high expectations of myself and others expected little from me. There weren’t many opportunities for young women at that time, particularly if you didn’t have the money to pay fees.
"Looking back, it was a choice between nursing or nursery teaching, and I chose nursing as both my elder sisters had become nurses. I did not really have a clue what I was getting myself into or where it might lead me. I joined the Aga Khan School of Nursing in Karachi after passing the entrance exam. The university grant covered tuition fees, accommodation and meals.
"The experience of studying was one I had never had before. I loved the clinical placements and that people expected something from me and gave me respect. Being able to offer something useful to others was very surprising for me. The adult general nursing course included a 12-week placement in a mental health ward in the final year. I enjoyed the mental health ward a lot, services were basic with the ward full of patients, their relatives and children, and the odd wandering cat or chicken. There was no real MDT but there was time for us students to spend with patients, creating activities, running groups, and listening to whole families.
"I worked on the psychiatric ward and later joined the School of Nursing as an instructor teaching mental health nursing. Over the next few years, going with other students to the clinical areas, I developed an inquisitive learning approach, constantly reviewing how evidence from Western countries applied to clinical practice in Pakistan. It enriched my own clinical practice as it allowed me to think outside the box and constantly challenge conventional medical approaches.
"I completed my BSc in Nursing and MSc in Mental Health and continued working as a senior faculty. I participated in developing nursing curricula in Pakistan and a number of different countries including Syria, Kenya, Tanzania and Afghanistan. By the time I left Pakistan in 2004, to pursue my PhD in the UK, I was an Assistant Professor.
"I studied for my PhD in the department of transcultural health at Middlesex University focusing on the experiences of people who visited a Sufi shrine in a place called Thatta, outside Karachi, looking for relief from mental health problems. This was something I had heard about and witnessed during a field trip as a nursing student. I spent three months at the shrine collecting data by talking to men and women who were living at the shrine, sometimes for many years, waiting for healing.
"While studying for my PhD I worked part time with a voluntary sector organisation working with a South Asian women’s group in North London. I did not have registration to work as a nurse in the UK as my overseas qualifications were not recognised. At this point I had been battling with the UKCC (now NMC) for almost five years. Whilst waiting for a decision I started doing bank and agency work as a health care assistant.
"I travelled all over London (with A-Z in hand), not having a clue where I was going. This is when I first started working at SLaM, doing regular bank shifts on an acute ward at Maudsley Hospital. This was a most difficult time, when I felt I had gone back to square one. All I brought with me, my skills, experience and qualifications meant nothing, and I was just a body, a number, doing one to one observation on the wards.
"My nursing registration came through quite suddenly with no explanation for the delay. I then successfully applied for a job at the Foxley Lane Women’s Service in 2006 and worked in a fantastic nurse-led team. I made a few mistakes at Foxley Lane as I mastered the art of UK cooking – putting chilli in the gravy turned out to be a no-no!
"I met a fantastic group of nurses, who worked with people not with illnesses or disorders. They were independent, self-directed and creative multi-taskers. The bond I developed with that group of people continues to this day. The service gave me the opportunity to translate my previous experience into the UK context.
"I completed my PhD in 2009 and I was able to work full time. From then on, I continued my nursing journey in the UK and worked in different services in different roles. Wherever I worked I learned something new, built on that learning and took it with me to the next role.
"I am thankful or people that gave me a chance to prove myself, were not put off by my lack of UK experience and saw the person beyond the new arrival from overseas.
"It has taken me some time to work my way up from health care assistant to deputy head of nursing. Along the way I have learned to never give up, never stop caring and being curious. It is always worth asking a question if something doesn’t make sense. Don’t judge people, people are never the same, look for their uniqueness. Don’t forget that people have had a life before you met them, be interested and give people a chance to show what they can be. And remember that no one can read your mind."
