Background 

Six months after qualifying as a Registered Nurse at the Bristol and Western School of Nursing Liz joined the Princess Mary’s Royal Air Force Nursing Service in August 1992. By 1995 she had began her specialist career in accident and emergency nursing. She was awarded an MSc in Advanced Practice in Emergency Care at Coventry University. Serving for 22-and-half years, Liz  retired in December 2014. 

​

Liz completed four operation deployments, two in Iraq and two in Afghanistan. In 2008 I was on MERT during Op Herrick 8/9. Each tour impacted Liz in their own way and her tours of Afghanistan were the beginning of her retreat from emergency medicine and the RAF. Further impact of returning to demanding emergency departments and having to adapt affected Liz both physically and mentally. By the time she retired Liz was in “burnout”.

Two years after retirement Liz is settled in the role of an Advanced Nurse Practitioner in a busy rural Medical Centre. This still affords the challenges she seeks but allows her the space to take stock and breathe.  

Since becoming actively involved within the MERT Club she has finally begun to put to rest her doubts and insecurities. But most of all she has re-embraced the coming together of like-minded personalities, sharing and remembering the good and the not so good, reconnecting and carrying forward the ethos common to all on MERT and providing a support network for all.