60 seconds with Liavel Vargas
Liavel Vargas, senior nurse for practice education at the Institute of Care Excellence, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, talks about her biggest challenges and what she is looking forward to most at Nursing Live 2024.
Liavel Vargas, senior nurse for practice education, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust
Register for your free ticket and join us at the ACC in Liverpool on 23-24 October, 2024. Take a look at the event agenda and plan your visit to Nursing Live 2024.
What do you enjoy role most in your current and why?
I enjoy the talent management and staff development side of my role. It is rewarding to empower staff through education and coaching in the hope that they will pay it forward to our future generation of nurses. If staff are empowered, confident and equipped with the knowledge and skills they need for the role, it has a direct positive effect on the quality of care they provide to patients.
Can you tell us about one of the biggest challenges you have had to overcome in your career?
The biggest challenges I have had to overcome have mainly been around imposter syndrome, and continuing to find the positive in the challenging times and uncertainties my team and colleagues have faced recently.
I am less than a year into my role as senior nurse in practice education and have felt the shift in accountability and responsibility. I sometimes doubt my skills and abilities, but have overcome this by having regular self-reflection and check-ins with my line manager, having honest conversations with my team and staying true to my values as a leader.
My role involves people management, therefore I am fully sighted of the challenges my team and colleagues face in the NHS. These challenges might be role-related or home-life related, so I always try and see the positive in challenging situations and offer a listening ear and advice if needed, while being mindful of not invalidating their current feelings and emotions.
What advice would you give to newly qualified nurses?
Try and enjoy your career journey and surround yourself with like-minded people and critical friends too! It’s good to have an idea of where you’d like to be in three, five or 10 years’ time, but it’s also important to enjoy the moment as a newly qualified nurse and take every learning opportunity available to you.
Reflect on your practice and access clinical supervision sessions early on in your career. Consider getting a coach too – they can help you build your confidence in articulating yourself for future career prospects.
If you were the next health minister, what would you tackle first and why?
The NHS workforce. We need our staff more than ever, so it is critical that they feel valued and invested in from the start until the end of their careers.
What are you looking forward to at Nursing Live this year?
I’m looking forward to networking in general, seeing nurses across the UK, sharing good practice and hearing about the amazing work happening out there.
Liavel Vargas is speaking at the following sessions on Thursday 24 October:
Preceptorship
Making the leap from student to newly registered member of staff