Being a children’s nurse was what Melissa Clee always aspired to be when she was growing up.
Qualifying in 2010, she built up her nursing career specialising in neonatal care at University College Hospital London (UCLH).
“I always loved being on a busy unit, and being there at the most vulnerable time in people’s lives. You play a really special role for people, and it was a privilege to do that for so many years,” says Melissa, 38, who is now based in Lincoln, Lincolnshire.
Melissa’s desire to support families took her to Uganda, where she worked at a partner hospital of UCLH, helping educate new parents on the benefits of kangaroo care, or skin to skin contact between new and premature babies and either parent. She also worked in respiratory support.
But the birth of her first daughter in 2019 prompted her to re-evaluate whether she could juggle parenthood with the long hours and night shifts that are all part of being a nurse.
