Briefly, tell us about your career journey up to this point…
A registered nurse from the Philippines, I moved to the UK in 2000 and started my nursing career as a head and neck and maxillo-facial surgical staff nurse in East Sussex NHS Hospitals. I then moved to the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust in 2002 to specialise in cancer nursing where I worked in various medical and surgical oncology settings including critical care and stem cell transplant units. My passion for improving cancer outcomes prompted my next career move to a Senior Clinical Trials Research Nurse role, also at the Royal Marsden Hospital.
I joined King’s in 2011. As Senior Teaching Fellow, I was mainly involved in delivering undergraduate and postgraduate nursing education; but I also applied for research grants to further my research on improving patient experience of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN). In 2019, I was awarded an NIHR Doctoral Research Fellowship.
What do you hope to achieve this year?
Finish my PhD
Do you have any current projects that you would like to tell us about?
I am currently wrapping up my doctoral thesis which involved co-designing a theory-informed intervention to reduce the impact of CIPN. I am also preparing for the feasibility phase which I aim to conduct postdoc. Aside from the global CIPN survey in which I got an award, I am also leading –in collaboration with colleagues from Europe– a qualitative study exploring the experiences of cancer nurse doctoral students of patient and public involvement in several European countries.
What advice would you give to your 18-year-old self?
You will meet lots of interesting people so take the time to listen and talk to them, you will learn something from each one.
Quick Fire:
What’s the first career you dreamed of having as a kid? I had lots! From being a meteorologist, a volcanologist, to becoming an engineer like my dad but I have always dreamed of working in healthcare.
Ideal dinner guest? If he could make it, Leonardo da Vinci.
What’s your hidden talent? It is so well-hidden that even I cannot find it!
What’s your favourite place at King’s? The Maughan Library Reading Room.