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I came in Aberdeen 3 years ago (17th Aug 2006) to do my masters degree in Nursing with Aberdeen uni, since my dream was and still is to teach Nursing. Unfortunately, in Greece universities of Nursing do not run post graduate degrees so I had to go abroad. Why Aberdeen? Because it was the only uni in the UK that had pedagogical courses that I was obviously very interested in. In addition they accepted my application immediately!
I graduated in November 2007, after a year of hard work. These are the links of my department that still have my class's graduation picture on their web page http://www.abdn.ac.uk/nursing/ and http://www.abdn.ac.uk/nursing/students/ that till now makes me so proud - and quiet emotional every time I look at it. As a student I used to work at Christos Greek Taverna to make some extra money and comfort my parents from their expenses. I know it doesn't sound like a Greek way of thinking especially for an only child ...but my father made me very 'proud' and both my parents taught me how to be independent since I was young!
After my graduation I decided to stay in beautiful Aberdeen and work as a nurse, so that I can have a good comparison between the Scottish and Greek NHS. Moreover, my life in Aberdeen was even better than what I was expecting. The lifestyle of this pretty city, the people and this small paradise of Scotland were inspirational for my decisions. In the mean time and while I was waiting for my registration with the NMC, I submitted my master's dissertation for the international conference of Nursing that takes place in Cambridge every year. I have to say that when I got accepted to represent Aberdeen University I couldn't believe it!!! The conference was a success back in September 2008.
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The theme of my dissertation was "The clinical practice of the final year nursing students in Greece: an exploratory study of staff nurses’ perspectives". It was a study that took place in Greece but the findings meet most of the UK's concerns in this area of research. I won't speak a lot about it because I will not know where to put a full stop!!! This conference enabled me to develop a very good networking with important people in my profession from all over the world and of course gave me a lifetime experience. Prior to Cambridge conference I presented my dissertation to the first Panhellenic conference of Nurses in Lefkada island in May 2008. That was a very good rehearsal of what was coming after!!!From October 2008 I started working as a staff nurse with the NHS in a 2 year development programme. I currently do my second year in OHS in ARI. It was a real challenge to work as a nurse here, since my initial training was in Greece and I have to confess that I had to learn things from the beginning. It was hard... but I had made my decision like the Spartans " Η ταν ή επί τας" I like to think that so far I am winning this battle!
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