Nurse comes full circle and returns home

A homegrown nurse has returned to his roots and is keen to ensure patients receive high quality person-centered care.
Nurse Paul Kirton-Watson.Nurse Paul Kirton-Watson.
Nurse Paul Kirton-Watson.

Paul Kirton-Watson is the new head of nursing for medicine at Grimsby’s Diana Princess of Wales Hospital. He said: “I feel like I have come home. I am looking forward to making positive changes for our patients and enhancing our staff’s experience of being at work.”

Paul, who lives in Grimsby, said: “Our job is to provide care that we would be proud of our own families receiving. If it is not good enough for your own family then it is not good enough for anyone else’s.”

His aim is to be a visible presence on the wards – both for staff, patients and their families – and to act as a role model in ensuring staff deliver high quality, person-centered care. He said: “It is the small things we do that make a big difference.”

Paul completed his training at Grimsby hospital in 1984 and worked on general and vascular surgical wards before moving to trauma and orthopaedics. He then became a specialist nurse in infection and prevention control before moving to sexual health where he spent a spell as a HIV nurse specialist and then clinical nurse manager.

He then moved out of acute care and took up a post as assistant director of nursing for the former North East Lincolnshire Primary Care Trust before moving to the private sector as nursing director at St Hugh’s Hospital in Grimsby and then general manager for Capio Healthcare.

Paul returned to the NHS and worked with commissioners in Grimsby before coming back to Grimsby hospital in August 2014 as associate chief nurse for medicine.

He added: “I may have a fancy title but at the end of the day I am nurse and that will always come first. I was lucky to have some incredible mentors along the way and I want to ensure I give back to my team the things I have learned.”

Trust chief operating officer Karen Griffiths said: “Paul is extremely committed to the provision of high standards of care for our local patients and is a superb role model for nursing.”