Alongside his day job, Dee is a former Chair and member of the Racially Minoritised Special Interests Group. Part of the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH), the group focuses on improving sexual health and HIV prevention needs of people from racially minoritised communities.
Here, Dee delves into his degree, receiving the Royal College of Nursing’s (RCN) Rising Star Award 2022, and how he’s using his platform to promote equitable healthcare.
From music to medicine
I worked in music for a while, before realising I needed a change. I’d always wanted to work in healthcare and my mum told me that when I was young, I said I wanted to be a midwife or a doctor.
I was planning to do nursing and move into medicine. However, when I saw firsthand what it was like to be a doctor, I decided to continue nursing. I would have been foolish not to apply to King’s, it being such a renowned university. Admittedly, I wasn’t originally planning on going to university, but I saw the degree as a way of achieving my goals.
Nurturing a career in healthcare
At the open day, I realised King’s was the place I wanted to be. As a mature student, I wanted to make sure I had some form of university experience. I liked that there was a student union within walking distance. I also enjoyed the opportunity to make friends with people outside of my course.
As a student nurse, I worked on a placement while at going to university and doing assignments. Between studies, I worked as a Health Care Assistant at a bank. Through all of this, a highlight for me was making lifelong friends. Out of the people in my tutor group, about half of us ended up working at the Royal Brompton Hospital (where I started).
I also learned the importance of working on my own. No one else was going to do my degree for me, so I had to be very regimented with my time.
Specialising in sexual health
I’ve always been interested in sexual health and asked for my elective placement to focus on this. This led me to the John Hunter clinic at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, where I am now the manager.
I find sexual health interesting because there are so many different aspects to it. As a nurse prescriber, I work autonomously. Sexual health is not very medicalised, so patients may not need to see a doctor before they see me. I do the clinical side of things, from consultation and diagnosis to treatment and prescribing.
Then, there’s also the health promotion side. This involves developing and supporting patients in improving their sexual health. I really enjoy this, as it’s such a varied experience.
Improving healthcare for those who need it most
I wanted to focus on the experiences of sexual healthcare for people from racially minoritised communities. These communities often have poorer health outcomes and the lack of support they receive is appalling. As a healthcare provider, I should want to improve healthcare for those who need it most, not just a privileged few.
As a Black person myself, I’ve had experiences in healthcare and in my professional and personal life that no one should have to go through. Now that I’m a senior nurse, I have a platform to help other people. I have my own privileges: I’m educated, I live in London, I have a career. I want to use my voice to help improve other people’s experiences.
I was gobsmacked when I received RCN’s Rising Star Award 2022 in recognition of my work in this area. I remember getting an email telling me I’d won the award. I was in the office, and I remember just running around and shouting in celebration. It was nice to make my mum happy as well. She screamed when I told her the news!
What’s next?
I want to continue using my voice to help improve healthcare, starting with a masters – which is very surreal, coming from someone who originally didn’t want to go to university!
As a manager I work in a bit of a bubble. Now that I work for BASHH, I’m part of a bigger bubble, and I just want to work on expanding that bubble.
At some point I’d like to pursue a career in public health to help improve things for the wider public. Beyond that, who knows?