Three of our Alumni Scholars, who served as the ceremonial lamp carrier and escorts at the 2025 Florence Nightingale Commemoration Service, shared their career journeys with journalist Melissa Pritchard. Just hours before taking their honoured places in the procession at Westminster Abbey, they spoke movingly about what inspires them, the impact of the FNF Scholarship, and their hopes for the future.
There is no typical workday for Chelsie; each day is different. Working with vulnerable patients involves case managing reviews and support, doing patient-facing teamwork with mental health workers and social workers to get a more complete picture.
Being awarded a Florence Nightingale Scholarship has given Chelsie “a real opportunity to focus on my development, to not be so bogged down by challenges in the NHS system or by mundane day to day tasks. It re-ignited the spark, re-inspired me to think of doing things differently, gave me the confidence to push boundaries, take more risks, make a difference by doing things differently.”
“If I could offer new nurses any advice, I would tell them to be open-minded about what you believe you can do as a nurse. Going outside the traditional picture of nursing opens opportunities to explore other interests.
I asked how a young nurse of Chelsie’s generation might still be influenced by the nineteenth century iconic figure of Florence Nightingale. Does Nightingale still inspire you, I wondered. “Yes, definitely. She is a big figure, and if you were to turn around and say you are very much like Florence Nightingale, that would feel like an amazing achievement. There are persons everyone can look up to and relate to, and though people won’t be talking about me in one hundred years’ time, Florence Nightingale is still a major inspirational figure, someone not a prime minister, not a king, but a nurse.”
Chelsie Sills, Lead Nurse for Vulnerabilities at King’s College Hospital
Farrah initially chose speech and language therapy for her career, then became a care assistant. At twenty-eight, she chose a career in nursing. “I always knew I should have gone into nursing first.” She realised she had dreams, ambitions, the potential to do more and make a difference. “I wanted a career, I chose it, I stuck to it, and today I am an independent, career-focused British Pakistani woman with two children. I wish I’d told myself ten years ago to be patient, to trust the process, it will be hard, but you will get there. I really struggled to find role models who looked like me.”
When I ask about the impact of the Florence Nightingale Foundation Scholarship on her career, she quickly explains how many doors have opened for her because of that scholarship, how her career has accelerated, how the scholarship set her up for so many good things. “I would never have dreamed I would be publicly speaking to new scholars,” and the leadership course, she goes on, “taught me to be calm and grounded during interviews, to be more confident in speaking up.” It also aligned her with the opportunity to receive the 2023 Ann Shuttlesworth Rising Star Award from Nursing Times, her proudest moment so far.
My proudest accomplishment in nursing, she goes on, is learning to believe in myself and to keep my eyes on the next step. If I were to advise new nurses, I would tell them to “not miss out on opportunities, not narrow yourselves, venture out, keep going, it isn’t always going to be a straight line.”
Farrah Amjad, Blended Roles Facilitator, Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care, National Health Foundation Trust
As a military nurse, Su has completed tours in Afghanistan and Sierra Leone as well as serving on the first deployment of the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth in 2021. In 2024, she completed her eighteen-month Florence Nightingale Foundation Leadership Scholarship. “When I finished my leadership scholarship, I realised it was just the start of a new chapter in my career. ”
When I ask Su what she finds most rewarding about her career, she answers quickly. “Being a critical care nurse can be a bit strange. It’s fifty-fifty, because you’re either supporting people back to life or else helping them to a good death.” Working in critical care, she continues, “patients either get better or they don’t, and as a nurse, there is so much I can do to make a physical and psychological difference in their lives.” What she finds challenging is “…having to do so much with so little.
She hopes that despite these new and ongoing challenges, nurses will continue to be drawn to nursing and want to make a difference in people’s lives. “Nursing is still a vocation, albeit with a recognised, robust academic foundation,” Su says. “You really have to want to help people”.
Lt. Cdr. Su Jeffreys, Critical Care Nursing Officer in Queen Alexandra’s Royal Naval Nursing Service
The Author
Melissa Pritchard is the award-winning author of twelve books, including her most recent novel, Flight of the Wild Swan, a fictionalised biography of Florence Nightingale. A 2025 Georgia Author of the Year finalist, her story collection, The Carnation Milk Palace, will be published in January 2027. www.melissapritchard.com
