Elano’s excellent career change

Elano Ayres has just started a new career as a Staff Nurse in the Mental Health Unit of the University Hospital of Hartlepool and North Tees. She has gained her new post thanks to her Advanced Diploma in Nursing Studies (Mental Health) from the University of Teesside, where she was also awarded the prize of best overall student.

Elano, 37, from Hartlepool, has enjoyed a diverse career, which has included catering, working as a nanny in the USA, managing a charity shop and achieving two degrees. Elano originally left English Martyr’s RC Secondary School in Hartlepool, to study for a City & Guilds catering qualification.

She said: “I didn’t find school interesting. I wasn’t very academic and didn’t want to stay on for A’ levels.”

After working as an Assistant Cook, Elano flew to Los Angeles. A lawyer, whose high-profile clients included Michael Jackson, Barry Manilow and Elton John, hired Elano as a nanny and she later met Olivia Newton-John. Upon returning to the UK, Elano returned to study, completing an Access Course, which lead to a Sociology degree in Leicester. She followed this with a part-time Masters degree in Social Sciences research, which she combined with the management of Help the Aged shop.

Elano said: “I really loved the job, and could have gone on to be Area Manager, but then started to think about Nursing. My sister Rachel was already a Mental Health Nurse in Nottingham and I spoke to her about her work.”

She found the course demanding but rewarding. Elano added: “The Diploma was intense, one of the most difficult courses that I’ve ever done. However, I enjoyed working with the clients, it was quite a privilege as a student nurse to be able to see them going home and being able to go back into the community an picking up parts of their life that they had to drop before.

“Completing this course has made me more self-aware. You need to accept people for what they are and we help clients to make choices, as people with mental health problems do not always have choices, for example they may find it difficult to get a job. I’d also like to thank my University tutors Lynne Sadler and Jan Connolly, they were very supportive.”

In the Diploma’s first year, Elano achieved 100 per cent in a Physiology exam, a first for the department. She said: “I couldn’t believe it, I thought they’d got it wrong! I felt the same about my prize and was completely amazed. I’m looking forward to my new job, settling in and getting to know new things.”

---