Occupational Health Nursing Careers: Kayren Milne On Flexible Working, Pay And Why You’ll “Absolutely Love It”

Occupational health nursing offers a different kind of nursing career: one built around prevention, case management, communication and helping people stay well at work.

We spoke to Kayren Milne about how she moved into the specialty, what the role involves, what skills matter most and why she says people considering it will “absolutely love it.”

How Did You Get Into Nursing And Why?

I qualified in 1992, went into medical nursing, then stayed in surgical for many years. I mostly worked in vascular and urology. I saw a lot of cancer patients who were undergoing surgery, so I worked in ITU and surgical high dependency as well.

I also did a diploma in cancer nursing, but I’ve always been somebody that’s been quite thirsty for knowledge.

Why Did You Move Into Occupational Health Nursing?

It was further on in my career when I started having children of my own and wanting that work-life balance.

I joined a flu campaign one year that Occupational Health were running, and I got to know the team really well. I was a little bit nosy as to what exactly do you do in Occupational Health.

They just opened up this world of all of these things that they actually did. There was health surveillance, lots of travel medicine, lots of medicals, lots of case management.

I just became really, really intrigued thinking this is not a side of nursing that I thought ever really existed.

Six months later a post came up and I thought timing’s right, I’m going to go for it.

Was It A Big Shift To Move Into This Role?

My career just took off in occupational health. It’s one of those where you can just diversify into lots of different things.

I progressed on to doing lots and lots of courses very, very quickly, then did oil and gas medicals, private occupational health, nurse manager and now clinical operations manager in the role that I’m in at the minute.

What Do You Do In Your Current Job?

My role title is Clinical Operations Manager.

Really I am looking after the clients, so that’s our contracts basically, as well as the staff that we’ve got. And it’s an absolute mixture of both of that during the day.

We could be small to medium enterprises up to big, huge companies. We have government contracts, councils, NHS, local councils, sports companies, hospitals.

For the part that I look after, we’ve got over 500. It’s quite a range that we do.

What Does A Typical Day Look Like?

Working from home in the morning is always very busy because we’ve got everybody starting between eight and nine in the morning.

My day has to be really quite fluid. There might be lots of meetings in my diary, staff meetings, client meetings.

We also do lots of teaching sessions to clients as well. How to make a good referral, setting up lots of health surveillance for clients.

I also do a lot of clinical oversight for the staff, lots of staff support in the morning and lots of operational and resourcing in the morning as well.

As the day progresses, you have to almost prioritise your diary and shift it quite a bit.

There’s no two days that are ever the same with my diary whatsoever.

Is The Role Remote, Hybrid Or On-Site?

It is mostly remote because of where I am there at the minute, but there’s always the expectation as well, of course, when you’ve got a role like this, that if there’s an on-site clinic that’s needing you, then yes, you will go out and you will attend to that site as well.

The remote working worked absolutely brilliantly after Covid.

It just brought a brand new way of working and it works great. We’ve got really good strong communication between us all and I absolutely love it.

Are The Hours Structured?

I work from 8 to half past 5 because I’m condensed hours.

That’s something that we look at. We look at flexibility quite a bit as well.

We’re very aware that nowadays it can be very difficult with that work-life balance, so we try and see if staff are happy to work 9 to 5. Is it 8 to 5? What is it they’re actually wanting?

But primarily we start between 8 to 9 in the morning and finish between 5 and 6 at night time and it’s Monday to Friday. It’s very rare that we’ll do weekend work or evening work.

What Do You Love Most About Your Job?

You never lose your social skills in nursing, no matter which area of nursing you actually go into.

We actually get to see everything. We’re looking at somebody’s physical health, their mental health, what’s their home structure looking like?

Have they got their bathroom upstairs, for instance? Who’s getting their shopping? Are they driving for a living? Have they got children at school or young children where they’re having to lift them up?

So you get to know people so much better and you have to build up a really quick rapport with them at the same time as well.

It’s lovely being part of somebody else’s life even if it’s just for a short piece of time.

It’s just diverse. You get to see everybody from all walks of life, from all different jobs and from all around the country as well.

What’s The Most Challenging Part?

It can be hard because you’re listening to people’s stories as well.

Quite often as a nurse you want to fix somebody. And of course, that’s not really our job to fix somebody, but it’s an innate part of what draws us into nursing.

Sometimes the best thing that you can do is realise that although you’re not fixing somebody, you’re laying the path for them.

Sometimes that can be the hardest part of the job more than anything else.

Quite often you will have people in your memory and it’s difficult then to think what happened to that person? I wonder if they’re okay there at the minute.

What Personal Qualities Are Most Important In This Job?

It’s not about speed or comfort or pain relief. It’s about listening skills.

If you’ve got really good listening skills, that’s a major part of what we need in occupational health.

So it’s not just about hearing somebody, it’s really listening to the little things that somebody’s saying, even the silences that somebody’s got and picking up the cues.

You don’t have to be a big, huge talker whatsoever.

Time management is another one because you are diarised.

Being sensitive when you’re questioning as well is another thing. When you’re on the phone to somebody, you’ve got to have a slightly different persona and make sure that it’s a little bit gentler, a little bit softer and that you’re allowing somebody a little bit of room to speak as well.

What Qualifications Or Registrations Do You Need?

There’s usually a difference between if you come in as a registered general nurse with no background, they’ll put you through normally an academy and that’s an internal academy where you will get taught.

If you then go off and do your degree, then you will get a pay reward for that as well.

It’s not a prerequisite. It’s not something that everybody needs to do whatsoever.

It’s a great qualification. You can even go in at diploma level as well. You don’t necessarily have to do the degree, but it’s a really good kudos for yourself because it gives you that speciality in occupational health as well as the pay reward at the same time.

How Does Pay Progress As You Develop Your Career?

NHS have got their kind of banding, you know exactly what you’ve got there, very structured.

When you come into private occupational health, it’s usually very different.

I would say negotiate because that’s what it’s always about.

We could be anything from a basic wage of 36,000 going all the way up and it’s probably non-stop after that depends where you get into it and even the management structure and above that as well.

You’re worth it and it’s worth asking it. Somebody can only just say no.

What Advice Would You Give Someone Starting Out?

I’d say do your research.

There’s lots of companies out there and lots of recruitment companies out there that will help you.

Reach out to somebody that’s maybe already doing the job. Speak to them about what the reality actually is like.

Research the companies that you really like the sound of. Reach out to them as well.

Put in your CV along with your transferable skills and best of luck for it.

You will absolutely love it.